THE SAND-HOITER 



The Squill 33 are seldom seen near land, specimens being mostly taken nearly six miles 

 at sea, where the bed of the ocean is known to be of a sandy nature. They are good 

 swimmers, darting quickly through the water by the action of the paddle at the end of the 

 tail. The GOUTY SQUILLA derives its name from the largely tuberculated limbs, which 

 look as if the animal were badly attacked with the gout. It is taken off the Mauritius. 



OUR attention is now drawn to the second great group of crustaceans, called the 

 Sessile-eyed Crustacea, because their eyes, instead of being placed on footstalks, are 

 seated directly upon the shell. The body is divided with tolerable distinctness into three 

 parts, for which the ordinary titles of head, thorax, and abdomen are retained as being 

 more convenient and intelligible than the ingenious and more correct, though rather 

 repulsive, titles that have lately been affixed to these divisions of the body. 



They have no carapace, like the stalk-eyed crustaceans, nor do they breathe with gills, 

 but by means of a curious adaptation of some of their limbs. None of the Sessile-eyed 

 Crustacea obtain any large size, an inch and a half being nearly their utmost limit in 

 point of length. Most of these animals reside along the sea-shores, where they are of very 

 great use in clearing away the mass of dead animal and vegetable matter which is con- 

 stantly found in the sea. 



The first order of the Sessile-eyed Crustaceans is termed the Amphipoda, a word 

 derived from the Greek, and signifying, " both kinds of feet," because they are furnished 

 with limbs for walking and swimming ; whereas in the Isopoda, or similar-footed 

 crustaceans, the feet are all of the same character. The females are in the habit of 

 carrying their eggs under the thorax, mostly between certain flattened appendages 

 attached to the base of the legs. 



In the next illustration we have several examples of the first family, called by the name 

 of Orchestidse or Jumpers, because they possess the power of leaping upon dry ground. The 

 upper right-hand figure represents the most familiar of these little crustaceans, shown in the 

 act of leaping. This is the well-kno T7 ;n SAND-HOPPEE, or SAND-SKIPPEE, seen in such 

 myriads along all our sandy shores, leaping about vigorously just before the advancing or 

 behind the retiring tide, and looking like a low mist edging the sea, so countless are their 

 numbers. Paley has a well-known passage respecting this phenomenon, too familiar for 

 quotation. 



The leap of the Sand-hopper is produced by bending the body and then flinging it 

 open with a sudden jerk in fact, the exact converse of the mode of progression adopted 

 by the lobster and shrimp. The Sand-hopper feeds on almost anything that is soft and 

 capable of decay, and seems to care little whether the food be of an animal or vegetable 

 nature. Decaying sea-weed is a favourite article of food, and wherever a bunch of 

 blackened and rotting sea-weed lies on the sand, there may be found the Sand-hoppers 

 congregated beneath it, and literally boiling out when the sea-weed is plucked up. 



Wherever there is sand, the Sand-hopper is to be found, even though no traces may , 

 be perceptible ; and an experienced shore-hunter will seldom fail in obtaining as many as 

 he wishes in the space of a few minutes. Even where the sand is extremely dry and 

 level, and seems unfit to nourish Sand-hoppers, these little creatures are often snugly 

 ensconced beneath, having burrowed deeper and deeper as the sand became dry. If a 

 smart stamp of the foot be given, a vast number of little holes will make their appearance 

 as if by magic. These are the burrows of the Sand-hoppers, which have been made while 

 the sand was still wet, and over which a film of moist sand had formed itself. The shock 

 caused by the stamp of the foot breaks the dried films, and the hole is at once made 

 apparent. 



To catch the Sand-hopper in fair chase is no easy task, but it can be captured without 

 any difficulty by simply digging up the sand and throwing it aside. The Sand-hoppers 

 seem so bewildered with their sudden change, that they merely sprawl about listlessly 

 and can be picked up at leisure. 



The teeth of this creature are strong and sharp, as indeed is needful for the tasks 

 imposed upon them. The Sand-hopper will eat anything ; and on one occasion when a 

 mdy had allowed a swarm of these little crustaceans to settle on her handkerchief, it was 



