172 New York State Museum 



Miscellaneous Associations 



There are various associations which it might be well 

 just to touch upon. One of the very interesting ones is 

 the association of the wharf piles, bridges, floating tim- 

 bers etc. In this connection one should, if possible, see 

 the reproduction in the American Museum of Natural 

 History of the animals of the wharf piles (Vineyard 

 Haven Wharf Pile Group), showing the numerous 

 sponges, hydroids, sea anemones, ascidians or sea squirts, 

 shellfish and other sedentary animals with which the piles 

 are crowded below the low-water mark (figure 19). A 

 description of this group is given by R. W. Miner in the 

 American Museum Journal for February 1913. Hun- 

 dreds of Pink Hydroids are shown clustered in feathery 

 colonies, the White-armed Sea Anemone and Brown Sea 

 Anemone are scattered here and there, interspersed with 

 coral red masses of the Red-beard Sponge. The ascidi- 

 ans or Sea Squirts are everywhere on the piles singly and 

 in colonies. The common Edible Mussels are clustered 

 thickly upon the piles and masses of coiled calcareous 

 worm tubes also incrust them. Various fishes, the Blunt- 

 tailed Squid and jellyfishes swim about. To those forms 

 shown in this reproduction may be added the ubiquitous 

 Acorn Barnacle, various small crustaceans and worms, the 

 Green Starfish, quite a large number of snails such as the 

 Oyster Drill, the Mud Flat Snail, two species of Litto- 

 rina (the Rough Winkle and the Seaweed Snail) several 

 bivalves such as the Common American Oyster, the 

 Jingle Shells, the Ribbed Mussel as well as the Edible 

 Mussel, the Ship Worm etc. and species of nudibranchs 

 or Sea Slugs. Some of these forms are attached to the 

 piles, others to the seaweeds growing upon the piles. 



