102 OVR CARCINOLOOICAL FRIENDS. 



the beacli for some time, the gill-sacs are apt to 

 become infiltrated with the sand, when their pe- 

 culiar accordion-like disposition becomes apparent. 

 When thus distended in irregular rolls they are com- 

 monly supposed to represent egg-capsules strung 

 together on a ribbon. 



Before dismissing the sub- 

 ject of spider forms, it may 

 be well to call attention to 

 the singular slender (eight- 

 legged) creatures that are 

 frequently met with on hy- 

 droid colonies and on 



SEA-SPIDEB. -m ,1 • f 



sponges. ±rom their dis- 

 tinctive forms, and their habit of living in the 

 oceanic waters, they have been named ' sea-spiders' 

 (Pycnogonoids) ; but their exact relationship has 

 not yet been determined. 



THE GOOSE BAENACLE, AND BARNACLES IN GENERAL. 



Of the remarkable traditions which have invested 

 the life-histories of many of our animals none is 

 perhaps more indicative of a fertile imagination 

 than that which ascribes to the barnacle the power 

 of giving birth to a fowl (barnacle goose). How 

 such a notion could ever have attained currency, 

 and met with a firm acquiescence on the part of 

 scholars of even a high degree of learning and 

 intelligence, is almost inconceivable. Yet we have 

 not only acknowledgment of a full belief in this 

 miracle, but positive assurances from otherwise re- 



