128 THE SEA-SIDE AND AQUARIUM. 



when left by the tide naked, is defended from the 

 scorching beams of the sun. It answers nobly also 

 the purpose of concealment; that kind Providence 

 which cares for the inferior animals, furnishing various 

 means of eluding their enemies. The ptarmigan, 

 which inhabits the lofty mountains, gets white plum- 

 age when winters returns, so that even the keen- 

 eyed eagle can scarcely distinguish it from the snow- 

 clad peaks among which it dwells. Were the Alpine 

 hare to be white in summer, it would be too conspicu- 

 ous when skipping along the heath; and it would be 

 not less so in winter, when all is white around, were 

 its fur not to lose its summer hue, and to become 

 white as the mountain snow. Nothing could be 

 better fitted to conceal this Actinia, which abounds 

 on our shores, than this very covering, with which 

 it knows so well how to clothe itself. When the 

 ebbing tide leaves the sand-covered rocks dry, a 

 Sea-anemone of so large a size, even when contracted, 

 would be very observable. But when the tentacula 

 are all retracted, and the warty skin covered with the 

 sand and shelly fragments that so firmly adhere to it, 

 it is so like everything around, that it is very difficult 

 to detect it so much so, that very often I have not 

 had the slightest suspicion of an Actinia being at hand 

 till, by some accidental pressure, the water squirted 

 up through its warts and tentacles. When the tide 

 returns, however, the Anemone unfolds itself in 

 beauty, and a marine flower is immediately seen 

 where there was nothing but sterility before. The 



