The Naturalist at the Seaside 63 
common Jack crab of the fishmonger’s shop will be found under the stones 
partially embedded in the sandy mud, and there will certainly be that most brilliant 
of our native crabs, the Velvet Fiddler, clad in rusty velvet picked out with bright 
crimson and blue, and with gleamimg white beads on his nippers. Pugnacious he is, 
too, beyond all his fellows. 
About the so-called “roots” of the olive wracks many small fry of various 
classes of life will be found—especially the marine worms, many-jointed creatures of 
great length and beautiful colourmg. Many of the smaller species of these worms, 
too, may be brought to lght by prising off flakes of the slaty rocks where they 
appear soft. Hvery crack and crevice, every overhanging ledge, should be regarded as 
a possible and probable lurking place for some form of lfe which seems specially 
fitted to occupy that nook. ‘To return to the weeds, many things that prowl about 
their jungles when the sea covers them remain quietly there when the tide ebbs 
THE VELVET FIDDLER CRAB. 
The most brilliantly coloured of our native crabs. 
out and leaves them stranded: even some fishes, such as the blennies and the 
father-lasher; also the starfishes, not only the common orange-coloured five-fingers, 
but a larger and handsomer one, the glaucous starfish, of greyish blue tint, studded 
with round cushions with central spines. 
Then there are the rock-pools. I have heard it said that one rock-pool is 
very like another; but that is a mistake. Nearly every rock-pool has distinct 
individuality, if one may so speak of an inanimate matter. They have all been 
formed by similar agencies, but they are all different in shape, size and depth, all 
important points influencing the particular sea plants that will grow in them and, as 
a consequence, the animals that will choose them as suitable homes or hunting 
grounds. A superficial examination of these pools is not sufficient. Many of the 
creatures harmonise so well with the coralline-covered walls, the sandy bottom or the 
green weeds, that a pair of remarkably acute eyes is needed to discern them at once. 
