TALITEUS. 
161 
than the first, feeble; fifth joint smaller than the fourth, 
flattened, rounded at the end. 
Common on all our sandy coasts, where it forms the 
principal food of the ringed plover and many shore birds. 
Colonel Montagu remarks that it is one of those creatures 
whose service is most apparent in contributing to the clear- 
ing away of putrid matter. 
It is to this species Archdeacon Paley alludes in the 
26th chapter of his ‘Natural Theology/ - * as an instance 
of the abundance of happiness in the lower creatures. He 
says, “Walking by the sea-side, in a calm evening, upon a 
sandy shore, and with an ebbing tide, I have frequently 
remarked the appearance of a dark cloud, or rather very 
thick mist, hanging over the edge of the water, to the 
height perhaps of half a yard, and of -the breadth of two 
or three yards, stretching Mong the coast as far as the eye 
could reach, and always retiring with the water. When 
this cloud came to be examined, it proved to be nothing 
else than so much space filled with young Shrimps, in the 
act of bounding into the air from the shallow margin of the 
water, or from the wet sand. If any motion of a mute 
animal could express delight, it was this; if they had meant 
* P. 458, 12th ed. 
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