THE PILL-WOODLOUSE, OR PILL-ARMADILLO. 479 



oak and other harder woods than in deal. Sometimes it is found attacking the same timber as 

 the chelura. 



As with most of these creatures, the male is smaller than the female, being about one- 

 third her size. The female may be distinguished by the pouch in which the eggs and after- 

 wards the young are carried. About six or seven young are generally found in the pouch. 



The Gribble is ashen-gray in color, with darker eyes. The timber into which these creat- 

 ures have been boring looks very like old worm-eaten furniture. The creature is able to roll 

 itself into a nearly spherical form, like the well-known pill-woodlonse. The tail is composed 

 of many segments, and the antenna? are in pairs, set above each other. 



A creature much resembling the common woodlouse, is the Great Sea-slater, or Sea- 

 woodlouse, a species which, though extremely plentiful, is not seen as often as it might be 

 imagined, owing to its extremely retiring habits and hatred of light. The Sea-slater lives on 

 the stone and rocks of the sea-shore, and hides itself carefully during the day in the crevices, 

 its flattened body enabling it to crawl into very small chinks. At early morning, however, 

 and in the evening, these creatures may be found by thousands, and any one who will take 

 the trouble to search the rocks by the aid of a "bull's-eye" lantern will find himself repaid 

 by the vast number of nocturnal animals that have ventured out of their dens. 



The female carries her young in a land of pouch formed by the development of a number 

 of horizontal plates along the abdomen. They remain in this natural cradle for some time, 

 and even after they are able to run about, may be seen clinging to their parent. Mi'. Tuffen 

 West tells me that on one occasion he picked up a very large Sea-slater, but nearly let it fall 

 again, startled by seeing four or five little ones run from the body. More and more followed, 

 until twenty had made their appearance. Thinking that he had taken up a dead specimen, he 

 put it down again, and was hardly less surprised to see it run off quite briskly. 



The substance of the Sea-slater is rather softer than that of the common woodlouse. It 

 appears to feed either on animal or vegetable substances, and is itself much preyed upon 

 by birds and other enemies. The fish are very fond of these creatures, and some species have 

 been known to hover about rocks during a storm for the purpose of preying on the Sea-slaters 

 that are washed into the water. The color is very variable, but is mostly some shade of brown 

 or gray. This, as well as the succeeding species, belongs to the family of Oniscidae. 



The Water Hog-louse is the aquatic representative of the sea-slater just described. This 

 species is plentiful in fresh water, whether still or running, and in general walks very leisurely, 

 though when alarmed it can run swiftly. In this genus the proportion of the sexes is reversed, 

 the male being larger than the female. Its average length is about half an inch. 



The common Woodlouse shows an equal development of the legs. This creature is very 

 plentiful in all damp places, and especially exults in getting under logs of wood or decaying 

 timber. In cellars and outhouses they are common, and are generally to be found in dark and 

 damp localities. Fowls are very fond of them, and there is no surer way of extirpating these 

 sharp-toothed creatures than by allowing some fowls to scrape and peck about in the places 

 where they have taken up their residence. Under the bark of dead and decaying trees is a 

 very favorite residence with the Woodlouse, and in such localities their dead skeletons may 

 often be found, bleached to a porcelain-like whiteness. 



The color of the Woodlouse is a darkish leaden hue, sometimes spotted with white. 



An allied species, the Land-slater (Oniscus asellus), is equally plentiful. This species 

 may be distinguished by the two rows of yellow spots and the same number of white spots 

 that run along the back. There are also eight joints in the outer antenna?, whereas there are 

 only seven in the same members of the woodlouse. 



The well-known Pill- woodlouse, or Pill-armadillo, when rolled up into a globular 

 shape, bears a strong analogy to the common hedgehog, and a still stronger to the manis, as 

 in the latter case the creature is defended by horny scales that protect it just as the external 

 skeleton protects the armadillo. While lolled up this creature has been often mistaken for a 

 bead or a berry from some tree, and in one instance a girl, new to the country, actually 

 threaded a number of these unfortunate crustaceans before she discovered that they were 

 not beads. 



