THE CHITON 35 



are streaked and mottled with pink, and orange, 

 and white, and lilac, and chocolate brown. 



Before a chiton reaches its perfect form it 

 passes through a kind of caterpillar stage, and 

 then turns into a sort of chrysalis, just as an 

 insect does. And both the caterpillar and the 

 chrysalis, strange to say, have eyes upon their 

 heads, while the perfect chiton has none. But 

 some chitons have eyes all over their shells 

 instead, and in some of these very odd creatures 

 between eleven and twelve thousand eyes have 

 been counted, the shells being almost entirely 

 covered with them ; so that the animals may 

 really be said to see with their whole bodies ! 



