72 IVILD NEIGHBORS chap. 



tion of the water, to be turned on its back, when 

 it would be as helpless as a tortoise but for this 

 sharp spike, the point of which it deflects and 

 forces into the sand, thus lifting its hinder parts, 

 and enabling it to roll over upon its feet again. 

 Moreover, were it not for this natural leaping-pole, 

 which is planted firmly in her rear as a brace, the 

 female horse-foot would be unable to push her 

 carapace into the sand, and thus make the burrow 

 which she requires for her eggs. 



Many of the smaller, bivalved mollusks, or 

 " shell-fish," of sandy ocean-shores are persistent 

 burrowers, and all delve tail foremost. The com- 

 mon soft clam is a good example. Here the 

 pointed, pliable tip of the body, which may be 

 called its tail, is the tool used ; and on page 159 of 

 my " Country Cousins," ^ the way in which the 

 operation is cleverly performed by the pretty little 

 Donax, or wedge-shell, is fully explained. 



The adroitness with which animals have caught 

 fish with their tails as lures and sometimes as 

 lines, forms the theme of many a barbaric legend 

 and myth. The Norse people say that the bear 

 once had a long tail, but under the advice of the 

 fox, who was jealous of bruin's rivalry in the 

 matter of caudal adornment, he lowered it through 

 a hole in the ice as a fish-line, and held it there 



' Country Cousins. Short Studies in the Natural History of the 

 United States. By Ernest IngersoU. Pages 252. Illustrated. 

 Square 8vo, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1884. Cloth, J2.50. 



