THE CLOAK ANEMONE. 139 



objects, as the great hairy Spiders (Mygale, Cteniza, 

 &ui.J, the Wolf Spiders CLycosaJ, and the Jumpers 

 (Salticus, SxJ, have the legs very short. Perhaps this 

 parallel might he much extended ; at the same time 

 I must confess the rule is not without exception ; as 

 witness the arboreal Squirrels, whose fore limbs are 

 sufficiently short. 



THE CLOAK ANEMONE. 



Among the singular disguises by which familiar 

 objects are sometimes rendered difficult of identifica- 

 tion, not the least interesting are some that arise from 

 the association of creatures very remote from each 

 other in structure, habit, and zoological position. 

 Many persons who know a Whelk as well as possible, 

 hesitate when they see the familiar shell tenanted, 

 not by the great black-spotted Mollusk, but by a 

 mongrel between Crab and Lobster, with stout, red, 

 pinching claws, and long, jointed, and pointed legs- 

 And still more mysterious does the thing look, when 

 two thirds of the shell itself is enclosed in a thick 

 mass of purple-spotted flesh, through the midst of 

 which the busy Crab his poking his head and limbs. 

 In truth it is a strange affair, this threefold alliance 

 of Whelk, Hermit- crab, and Cloak-anemone. 



Let me describe the last a little more particularly ; 

 it is the Adamsia palliata of zoologists. All round 

 the mouth of the shell is firmly adhering a soft but 

 firm pulpy mass of flesh, of which the upper part is 

 commonly of a warm brown hue, but the under surface 

 is delicately white, dotted over with round spots of 

 rosy purple. I have said it adheres around the shell- 



