472 
THE SAND-HOPPER. 
SESSILE-EYED CRUSTACEA. 
Our attention is now drawn to the second great group of crustaceans, called the Sessile- 
^eyed Crustacea, because their eyes, instead of being placed on footstalks, are seated directly 
upon the shell. The body is divided with tolerable distinctness into three parts, for which the 
ordinary titles of head, thorax, and abdomen are retained, as being more convenient and 
intelligible than the ingenious and more correct, though rather repulsive, titles that have 
lately been affixed to these divisions of the body. 
They have no carapace, like the stalk -eyed crustaceans, nor do they breathe with gills, 
but by means of a curious adaptation of some of their limbs. None of the Sessile-eyed Crus- 
tacea obtain any large size, an inch and a half being nearly their utmost limit in point of length. 
Most of these animals reside along the sea-shores, where they are of very great use in clearing 
away the mass of dead animal and vegetable matter which is constantly found in the sea. 
AMPHIPODA. 
The first order of the Sessile-eyed Crustaceans is termed the Amphipoda, a word derived 
from the Greek, and signifying “both kinds of feet,” because they are furnished with limbs 
for walking and swimming ; whereas, in the Isopoda, or similar-footed crustaceans, the feet 
are all of the same character. The females are in the habit of carrying their eggs under the 
thorax, mostly between certain flattened appendages attached to the base of the legs. 
The next family is called by the name of Orchestidse, or Jumpers, because they possess 
the power of leaping upon dry ground. The most familiar of these little crustaceans is the 
well-known Sand-hopper, or Sand-skipper, seen in such myriads along sandy shores, 
leaping about vigorously just before the advancing or behind the retiring tide, and looking 
like a low mist edging the sea, so countless are their numbers. Paley has a well-known 
passage respecting this phenomenon, too familiar for quotation. 
The leap of the Sand-hopper is produced by bending the body and then flinging it open 
with a sudden jerk — in fact, the exact converse of the mode of progression adopted by the 
lobster and shrimp. The Sand-hopper feeds on almost anything that is soft and capable of 
decay, and seems to care little whether the food be of an animal or vegetable nature. Decaying 
sea-weed is a favorite article of food, and wherever a bunch of blackened and rotting sea-weed 
lies on the sand, there may be found the Sand -hoppers congregated beneath it, and literally 
boiling out when the sea- weed is plucked up. 
Wherever there is sand, the Sand-hopper is to be found, even though no traces may be 
perceptible ; and an experienced shore-liunter will seldom fail in obtaining as many as he 
wishes in the space of a few minutes. Even where the sand is extremely dry and level, and 
seems unfit to nourish Sand-hoppers, these little creatures are often snugly ensconced beneath, 
having burrowed deeper and deeper as the sand became dry. If a smart stamp of the foot 
be given, a vast number of little holes will make their appearance, as if by magic. These are 
the burrows of the Sand-hoppers, which have been made while the sand was still wet, and 
over which a film of moist sand had formed itself. The shock caused by the stamp of the 
foot breaks the dried films, and the hole is at once made apparent. 
To catch the Sand-hopper in fair chase is no easy task, but it can be captured without any 
difficulty by simply digging up the sand and throwing it aside. The Sand -hoppers seem so 
bewildered with their sudden change, that they merely sprawl about listlessly, and can be 
picked up at leisure. 
The teeth of this creature are strong and sharp, as indeed is needful for the tasks imposed 
upon them. The Sand-hopper will eat anything; and on one occasion, when a lady had 
allowed a swarm of these little crustaceans to settle on her handkerchief, it was bitten to rags 
when she took it up. It is very fond of worms, will eat any kind of carrion, and sometimes, 
