62 Animal Life 
things harmonise with 
their immediate en- 
vironment that the 
superficial observer sees 
the weed-coyered rocks 
with their pools of clear 
water and little else. 
But it is among this 
material that anyone 
with a seeing eye will 
find more marvels than 
he can exhaust the 
interest of in the 
regulation fortnight’s 
visit. And now, how 
to go about it? First, 
ascertain from any of 
those—fishermen, boat- 
THE COMMON LOBSTER. men or coastguard— 
whose living is in- 
timately associated with the sea, at what hour to-day low-water will be. Then 
start out an hour or two beforehand, and selecting some gully or the shoreward 
edge of a reef, go right down to the water. The wracks that hang over the rocks 
are dripping wet, for the sea has but just receded from them. Turn them back, and 
you will see the anemones not yet closed or flaccid. The soft yellow, white, red or 
green encrustations on the vertical face of the rock are sponges, the crumb-of-bread 
sponge probably predominating. A few square inches carefully prised off with your 
knife and put into a glass jar of water will reveal to you the volcano-like action of the 
currents which are being drawn in by the minute pores and expelled by the little conical 
peaks. Feeding upon the sponge and looking so like it that you may not at first see 
any difference, is the great slug called the sea lemon. There are purples and dog- 
winkles and top-shells close at hand. The ticking sound that comes from a crevice 
should lead you to investigate closely, for there is certainly a crab of some kind hiding 
there. Hvery stone at the base of the rock should be turned, and almost every one 
will be found to hide some 
creature or other—a worm-lke ~ aN TOR 
pipe-fish, a rockling or a crab. 
In these situations, too, will be 
found a little-known crab that 
greatly resembles a lobster in 
form, though more depressed, 
and consequently named the 
Squat Lobster. Although little 
more than a couple of inches 
long, he has considerable mus- 
cular power in his flat and spiky 
nippers, and a surprising sense 
of locality shown by darting 
backwards into a narrow hole, 
by vigorous flappings of his broad 
tail. Small specimens of the 
HEART URCHINS. 
Called by the Cornish fishermen, ‘‘ Pussy.” 
