170 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



It would be interesting to have a cupboard with six shelves, 

 with typical representatives of the various faunas. One 

 would put some birds and insects (6) uppermost, a deep sea 

 sponge and a few corals (3) lowermost, and so on for the other 

 shelves. 



THE SEASHORE 



Characteristics of the Shore Fauna. By the shore the 

 littoral region is meant not simply the narrow area between 

 tide marks, but that and much more ; in fact, the whole of the 

 shallow- water shelf around the dry land. It includes (a) the upper 

 littoral zone or beach exposed at low tide, with its acorn-shells 

 (Balanus\ periwinkles (Littorina), dog-whelks (Purpura), limpets 

 (Patella), cockles (Cardium), and mussels (Mytilus) ; (6) the 

 median laminarian zone, down to fifteen fathoms, with its sea- 

 slugs or nudibranchs, its starfishes and oysters; and (c) the 

 lowest or coralline zone, from fifteen to forty fathoms, where 

 the green and olive sea-weeds are replaced by red sea-weeds, 

 and where the carnivorous buckies, for instance, are at home. 

 Generally speaking, we mean by the littoral area the relatively 

 shallow shelf where sea-weeds grow, which is not deep enough to 

 be dark. 



The animal population in this large area is exceedingly rich 

 and varied, representative of most of the classes of the animal 

 kingdom. There are microscopic infusorians and Foraminifera ; 

 sponges with skeletons of lime, or of flint, or of " horny" matter, 

 or of the two last together ; zoophytes and sea-anemones 

 and alcyonarians ; a mob of worms of many different kinds ; 

 starfishes and sea-urchins; a legion of Crustaceans, from 

 sandhoppers to crabs ; a few insects about high-tide mark ; 

 quaint sea-spiders (or Pycnogonids) clambering on the sea- 

 weed ; abundant bivalves and gasteropods and occasional cuttle- 

 fishes ; sea-squirts fixed to the rocks and sea - weed ; many 

 shore fishes, such as gunnel (Pholis gunnellus\ and father- 

 lasher (Coitus bubalis) ; on foreign shores a few reptiles ; 

 numerous shore birds, such as gulls and terns, oyster-catcher, 

 dunlin, ringed plover, and sandpipers ; and an occasional 



