SEA-URCHINS. 
77 
with its dorsal crest like the teeth of a saw running 
all down its back, might be seen lying out on the 
branches of the trees, or playing bo-peep from a 
hole in the trunk : or, in the swamps and morasses 
of Westmoreland, the yellow Galliwasp (Celestus 
occiduus), so much dreaded and abhorred, yet with- 
out reason, might be observed sitting idly in the 
mouth of its burrow, or feeding on the wild fruits 
and marshy plants that constitute its food. 
SEA-URCHINS. 
Feh, 2\st. — I find lying on the sand and white 
chalky mud in shallow water along the shore at Bel- 
mont, some specimens of the large long-spined Echi- 
nus that I had noticed in crossing the Bay. On 
touching them, though cautiously, several of the very 
acute points entered my fingers, and I thought were 
broken off in the wounds ; for something black re- 
mained there, and the part soon began to be tense and 
painful. But this substance afterwards proved to be 
merely a dark purple pigment, which came off from 
the spines whenever they were handled. The best 
mode of lifting the specimens, which at first seemed, 
on account of the points bristling in every direction, 
to be impracticable, was by putting the fingers under 
the animal; as the spines on the inferior side, that is, 
those surrounding the mouth, are short and com- 
paratively blunt. The projection of the mouth is of 
a rich red-purple, and the spines and body purple- 
black. The spines, viewed through a microscope, 
display a beautiful structure ; being each surrounded 
