Sea- Jjr chins or Sea- Eggs. /j 



with the exception of the color. They are much more beautiful 

 in the water than out. They walk by means of their terminal 

 suckers. Whatever their posture, they have always a certain 

 number of feet, which carry them, and suckers, with which they 

 attach themselves. I have seen the animal walk by turning upon 

 itself like a wheel in motion. 



S. Franciscanus A. Ag., is one of the largest of the sea-eggs, 

 attaining a diameter of six inches across the test. It is found at 

 various points upon the Pacific coast, from Queen Charlotte's 

 Island to San Diego, and A. Agassiz gives Formosa also as one 

 of its localities. At Santa Cruz, they are found at very low tide 

 by wading out as far as you can, and feeling under the rocks, and 

 great bowlders, once part of the cliff that rises up about thirty feet 

 above the beach. The young ones are found nearer the shore. 

 The S. Franciscanus are not so beautiful as the S. purpuratus, 

 because they are brown when grown and a greenish white when 

 young. 



Echinarachnius exeentricus, Val , is the common cake-urchin 

 of the Pacific coast, found at all points from Sitka to Lower Cali- 

 fornia, and also at Kamtschatka. When dead it is a pure white 

 with the almost perfect impression of a leaf of the lupine on its 

 back. When alive, it is a very dark color, sometimes almost 

 black, with sharp and fine spines covering it. It is sometimes 

 washed up by the waves on the beach, but it don't stay long in 

 sight because it burrows in the sand as soon as the waves that 

 washed it up go back. — Laura J. F. Hecox in Science Gossip. 



HABIIS OF THE SCORPION. 



A few years ago, while in the island of Jamaica, it was my 

 fortunate chance to have an opportunity for observing some very 

 curious facts in connection with that genus of the Arachnide class 

 commonly known as scorpions and the curious traits of character 

 in these insects Turning over some old papers in my office one 

 day, I suddenly came upon a large black scorpion, who promptly 

 tried to beat a precipitate retreat. Having read or heard some- 

 where that if you blow on a scorpion he will not move, I tried the 

 experiment, and was greatly astonished to find that it had that 

 effect. The scorpion stopped instantly, flattened himself close to 

 the paper on which he had been running, and had all the appear- 

 ance of "holding on for dear life.' While I continued to blow 

 even quite lightly, he refused to move, though I pushed him with 

 a pencil and shook tlie paper to which he clung so tenaciously. 

 Directly I ceased blowing, he advanced cautiously, only to stop 

 again at the slightest breath. I was thus able to secure him in a 

 glass tumbler which happened to be within reach, and then I 

 determined to try another experiment as to the suicidal tenden- 

 cies which I had heard ran in the veins of the Pedipalpi family. 



