

AND WHAT LIVED IN THEM. 343 
sleep, —a singular crab indeed, mounted upon a wonderfully 
long set of eight legs (to say nothing of two claw-nippers), 
all of which he contrives to move at just the right moment, 
as if he were playing a tune upon piano keys, and so plays 
himself sidewise over the sand with marvellous ease and 
celerity, the only wonder is that he does not forget a leg 
in his haste. He is a very grallatorial crab, and lives in the 
holes in the sand we sce all about, just like a prairie-dog. 
There is a tortuous trail along the sand, where a water- 
snake, perhaps a Nerodia sipedon, crawled out of his pool 
in the marsh beyond, to enjoy the sun’s rays, or possibly on 
an egging expedition like ourselves. Here is a fainter line, 
straight as an arrow, looking just as if a pencil had been 
drawn along a ruler’s edge; it is the mark left by the long 
slender tail of the little striped lizard, and if we look closely 
we shall see it bounded on either side by a succession of 
faint dots where the creature's toes barely disturbed the 
grains of sand. There again is a curious track, a pair of 
rounded depressions, side by side, and hardly more than an 
inch apart, outside of which, in the intermediate distances, 
are another pair, wider apart, and much longer. It is 
clear that a Marsh Rabbit has passed this way, planting his 
fore-feet, straight downward, and drawing his hinder ones 
leisurely after, half squatting at each step, as he loped out 
. Of his home in the bushes to nip the beach grass for a change 
of diet. And so we might go on reading signs as plain as 
print; but the birds are by this time alarmed as they never 
Were by former visitors. They know by intuition that we are 
not one of them, though among them, and that our coming 
bodes no good, however much we may affect to care for 
them in an abstract way. So ina moment all is changed, 
and confusion reigns where were peace and quiet. The 
quick-witted Terns were the first to sound the alarm; they 
had watched our approach, and straightway changed their 
heedless and joyous cries to notes of ‘anger and fear; at 
the signal the sitting birds had arisen from their eggs and 
