170 NATURAL HISTORY of N RW A T. 



verint, quam ut primis teftis capi queant in teftam ampliorem 

 tanquam in domum novam migrant." Worm. Muf. p. 250 *. I 

 have fometimes kept them alive a few days in water, to fee how 

 readily they go in and out. Ambrofe Parseus, Lib. xxv. p. 687, 

 calls this little creature Bernard V Eremite ; but why I do not 

 know, for he gives no account of the origin of that name/ 



SECT. V. 



igdkier. The Igelkier, or Julkier, the Sea-urchin, called alfo Krake- 



Bailer, perhaps becaufe the crow feafts upon them when he finds 

 them lying on the rocks at low-water. It is otherwife known by 

 the name of Echinus Marinus, and Pomum Marinum, the Sea- 

 dapple, a name that reprefents the fize and figure of the thin and 

 tender fhell that furrounds this Fifh, which certainly is one of the 

 ftrangeft animals contained in the fea. They are feen here every 

 day, and are very common on our coaft. They differ pretty much 

 in fize, for fome are found not bigger than a wallnut 5 * others are 

 equal to a large apple \ and I have two in my cabinet as big as the 

 head of a new-born infant. Their fliape is likewife different, for 

 fome are like a cone, others are quite round, excepting the under 

 part, which is pretty flat ; and of this laft fort we have the 

 greateft number. The fhell is covered with a vaft number of 

 fmall fharp prickles, like the briftles of a hedge-hog, whence its 

 Latin name ; but thefe prickles are not larger than a fmall pin at 

 the moft. I have indeed feen a fmall kind, that has had them as 

 long again as the largeft fort. They probably fhed the prickles 

 once a year, and have new ones, which their finenefs feems to re- 

 quire. When they are juft taken out of the fea they have a 

 greenifh luftre, which is very beautiful ; but their greateft beauty 

 appears when they are dry 7 a or boil'd, and the prickles are rubb'd 

 off. This confifts in certain regular and proportionable ftripes 

 interchanged among one another, of a cylindrical f mi, rid running 

 from the top to the bottom. Some of thefe ais vhite, others 

 of a dark red, others again of a light red, or orange colour. Thefe 

 coloured ftripes are again ftrewed over with as many white little 

 knobs as there were originally prickles. - 



I fliall now defcribe the internal part of this creature, which 

 will be more difficult to conceive, without feeing it, than the 

 external. When this beautiful fhell is broken (which may eafily 

 be done by fqueezing it a little) there is found in it a quantity 



* Swammerdam averts that the Bue-hummer never quits his fhell ; and in his Bible 

 ®f Nature, Chap. xii. p. 64, that author treats all that is faid about it as a meer fable 

 without any foundation* 



of 



