NATURE'S CALENDAR 



species, the odd, hairy, flat-backed arc- 

 shell, or " blood clam," and other surface- 

 keeping species, the pipes are short ; but 

 in the thin-shelled soft clam, and similar 

 kinds, that live deeply sunken in the mud 

 and sand of the bottom, the pipes may be 

 stretched out to a length of several inches. 

 By this provision these clams are able to 

 lie safely buried between tide-marks, con- 

 tentedly waiting the return of the water 

 that shall bring them refreshment. As 

 you walk over the oozy sand where they 

 hide, you se€ their position by numerous 

 pinpricks, out of which will spurt, just 

 ahead of your footsteps, tiny jets of water, 

 showing that they have felt the jar of 

 your approach and are hastily withdraw- 

 ing their flexible pipes to safer depths. 



Of the several sorts of thin-shelled bi- 

 valves of this type living on, or rather in, 

 our beaches, the most attractive one is the 

 razor clam, whose long shells, shaped like 

 a knife-handle, show a glossy green and 

 banded surface that is often exceedingly 

 beautiful. 



Of a very similar nature are the two or 

 three species of glossy, or sometimes 

 prettily marked, pear-shaped " mussels," 

 which live altogether out of the sand, at- 

 tached to some fixed object, as a rock, a 

 bridge-pile, or the stems of the eel-grass, 

 by a silken cable or bysstis of their own 

 spinning. They are to be searched for in 

 the inlets or about the edges of bays and 

 lagoons, where the salt tide has free ac- 



