112 THE SEA-SHORE 



its way along over the sand at the bottom of 

 the sea. 



If you succeed in finding a live sea urchin- 

 and you can generally do so without very much 

 trouble, by hunting in the pools among the rocks 

 when the tide is out you will notice that it has 

 a very big mouth, with five perfectly enormous 

 teeth. They are so huge, indeed, that if you had 

 teeth as big, in proportion to your size, they would 

 be about as large as good big carving-knives ! 



On some parts of the coast sea urchins are 

 eaten as food, being scooped out of their shells 

 with a spoon, just as we eat a boiled egg at 

 breakfast. For this reason they are sometimes 

 known as " sea eggs," and those who have tried 

 them say that they are very good indeed. 



You would hardly think, perhaps, that a sea 

 urchin and a starfish could be related to one 

 another, for they do not look in the least alike. 

 But if you take an urchin which has lost its 

 spines, and examine it carefully, you will see 

 that it is really a kind of rolled-up starfish, and 

 you will be able to count its five rays quite easily. 



There is just one more thing that I must tell 

 you about these very curious creatures, and that 

 is that they are very fond of covering themselves 

 all over with small stones, and little bits of broken 

 shell, and tiny pieces of sea-weed, in order that 

 they may not be noticed. They do this in a very 

 odd way. I told you that they have numbers 





