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horns, all serving for legs, and from their number seeming to impede each other's motion, yet it runs with some share of swiftness at the bottom, and it is sometimes no easy matter to overtake it. It is often taken upon the ebb, by following it in shallow water, either in an osier basket, or simply with the hand. Both the spines and the horns assist its motion; and the animal is usually seen running with the mouth downward.

Some kinds of this animal are as good eating as the lobster; and its eggs, which are of a deep red, are considered as a very great delicacy. But of others the taste is but indifferent; and, in all places, except the Mediterranean, they are little sought for, except as objects of curiosity. Most of this species of fish have a great variety of beautiful tints and curious forms, and many of them are highly valued in collections. Oppian tells us that the Sea Urchin was believed to have the power of uniting its dissected parts.

The Sea Urchin is oviparous, and spawns in the spring. It lives chiefly on marine worms, crabs, and other testaceous animals.

Very different in motion, though not much different in shape from these, are the ACORN shell fish, the THUMBFOOTED Shell fish, and the IMAGINARY BARNACLE. These are fixed to one spot, and appear to vegetate from a stalk. Indeed, to an inattentive spectator, each actually seems to be a kind of fungus that grows in the deep, destitute of animal life as well as motion. But the inquirer will soon change his opinion, when he comes to observe this mushroom-like figure more minutely. He will then see that the animal residing within the shell has not only life, but some degree of voraciousness. They are seen adhering to every substance that is to be met with in the

ocean; rocks, roots of trees, ships' bottoms, whales, lobsters, and even crabs; like bunches of grapes clung to each other. It is amusing enough to behold their operations. They for some time remain motionless within their shell; but when the sea is calm, they are seen opening the lid, and peeping about them; they then thrust out their long neck, look round them for some time, and then abruptly retreat back into their box, shut their lid, and lurk in darkness and security. Some people eat them; but they are in no great repute at the tables of the luxurious, where their deformed figure would be no objection to their being introduced.

Of all animals of the shelly tribe, the PHOLADES are the most wonderful. These animals are found in different places; sometimes clothed in their proper shell, at the bottom of the water; sometimes concealed in lumps of marly earth; and sometimes lodged, shell and all, in the body of the hardest marble. In their proper shell they assume different figures; but, in general, they somewhat resemble a muscle, except that their shell is found actually composed of five or more pieces, the smaller valves serving to close up the openings left by the irregular meeting of the two principal shells. But their penetration into rocks, and their residence there, makes up the most wonderful part of their history.

This animal, when divested of its shell, resembles a roundish soft pudding, with no instrument that seems in the least fitted for boring into stones, or even penetrating the softest substance. It is furnished with two teeth indeed; but these are placed in such a situation, as to be incapable of touching the hollow surface of its stony dwelling: it

* Anderson's History of Greenland.

has also two covers to its shell, that open and shut at either end; but these are totally unserviceable to it as a miner. The instrument with which it performs all its operations, and buries itself in the hardest rocks, is only a broad fleshy substance, somewhat resembling a tongue, that is seen issuing from the bottom of its shell. With this soft, yielding instrument, it perforates the most solid marbles; and having, while yet little and young, made its way, by a very narrow entrance into the substance of the stone, it then begins to grow bigger, and thus to enlarge its apartment.

When it has buried its body in a stone, it there continues for life at its ease; the sea-water that enters at the little aperture supplying it with luxurious plenty. When the animal has taken too great a quantity of water, it is seen to spurt it out of its hole with some violence. Upon this seemingly thin diet, it quickly grows larger, and soon finds itself under a necessity of enlarging its habitation and its shell. The motion of the Pholas is slow beyond conception; its progress keeps pace with the growth of its body; and in proportion as it becomes larger, it makes its way farther into the rock. When it has got a certain way in, it then turns from its former direction, and hollows downward; till at last, when its habitation is completed, the whole apartment resembles the bowl of a tobacco pipe; the hole in the shank being that by which the animal entered.

But they are not supplied only with their rocky habitation; they have also a shell to protect them; this shell grows upon them in the body of the rock, and seems a very unnecessary addition to that defence which they have procured themselves by art. These shells take different forms, and are often composed of different number of valves; sometimes six; sometimes but three; sometimes the shell resembles a tube with holes at either end, one for the mouth, and the other for voiding the excrements.

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This animal is found in greatest numbers at Ancona, in Italy; it is found along the shores of Normandy and Poitou, in France: it is found also upon some of the coasts of Scotland; and, in general, is considered as a very great delicacy at the tables of the luxurious.

CHAP. X.

Of Reptiles...The FROG... The Toad... Varieties...Surinam Toad... Of LIZARDS... The Crocodile and Alligator....The Open-bellied Crocodile.. The Salamander... The Cordyle, &c. ...The Iguana... The Cameleon...The Dragon...The Siren... The Tarantula...The Chalcidian Lizard.

Ir we emerge from the deep, the first and most obvious class of amphibious animals that occur upon land are Frogs and Toads.

To describe the form of animals so well known would be superfluous; to mark those differences that distinguish them from each other, may be necessary. The Frog moves by leaping; the Toad crawls along the ground: the Frog is in general less than the Toad; its colour is brighter, and with a more polished surface: the Toad is brown, rough, and dusty. The Frog is light and active, and its belly comparatively small; the Toad is slow, swollen, and incapable of escaping. The Frog, when taken, contracts itself so as to have a lump on its back; the Toad's back is straight and even. Their habitudes and manners exhibit a greater variety, and require a separate description.

The external figure of the FROG is too well known to need a description. Its power of taking large leaps is remarkably great, compared to the bulk of its body: and it is the best swimmer of all four-footed animals.

If we examine this animal internally, we shall find that it has very little brain for its size; a very wide swallow; a stomach seemingly small, but capable of great distention.

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The heart in the Frog, as in all other animals that are truly amphibious, has but one ventricle; so that the blood can circulate without the assistance of the lungs, while it keeps under water. The lungs resemble a number of small bladders joined together, like the cells of a honeycomb they are connected to the back by muscles, and can be distended or exhausted at the animal's pleasure. Neither male nor female have any of the external instruments of generation; the anus serving for that purpose in both. Such are the most striking peculiarities in the anatomy of a Frog; and in these it agrees with the toad, the lizard, and the serpent.

The female is impregnated neither by the mouth, as some philosophers imagine, nor by the excrescence at the thumbs, as was the opinion of Linnæus; but by the inspersion of the male seminal fluid upon the eggs as they proceed from the body.

A single female produces from six to eleven hundred eggs at a time; and, in general, she throws them all out together by a single effort; though sometimes she is an hour in performing this task. It is generally in March that she deposits the ova, or spawn.

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