y are all
waders and diggers. They live much as he does, and so they have the long
beak and legs, and the spreading feet, to fit them for that life.

We have now looked at a few sea birds, shore birds, and a marsh bird.
Many inland birds, too, are fond of the shore. The artful Jackdaw builds
in the cliffs, and his cousin, the Crow, searches the shore for food.
Even the gay Kingfisher has been seen diving in the seaside pools.

EXERCISES

1. How do you know which is the Black-headed Gull in the summer months?

2. Why is it difficult to see the Ringed Plover on the stones of the
shore?

3. Where would you look for the eggs of the Ringed Plover and of the
Black-headed Gull?

4. Why have marsh birds such long beaks?

LESSON IV.

CRABS.

Little Crabs are to be found everywhere along the sea-shore--not the
monsters of the fishmonger's shop, but small greenish-brownish Crabs.
They live in the weed of the rock-pools, and in the wet sand. These are
the Shore Crabs; the large Edible Crabs are a different kind, and live
mostly in deep water.

Shore Crabs are quarrelsome little creatures; the larger ones are always
ready to gobble up the smaller ones, or to snatch their food and run
away with it. If you put some dead mussels or fish in a pool, you will
be amused at their antics. How they scramble and fight! Crabs do not
believe in "table manners."

[Illustration: THE REDSHANK.]

[Illustration: THE CRAB.]

It is their taste for waste scraps of food that makes crabs of use in
the sea. They are most useful scavengers. They clear the sea and beach
of dead matter which would poison the air and water.

For many years nobody knew how Crabs grew up. It was thought that a baby
Crab was like its mother, just as a baby spider is a tiny picture of its
parent. But no, the young Crab is as much _like_ a Crab as a caterpillar
is like a butterfly.

Let us begin at the beginning--the egg. Mother Crab carries her eggs
with her, under her tail, which itself is always kept tucked up under
her body. Out of each egg there comes the queerest little creature! It
is just large enough to be seen as it wriggles in the water. Then its
skin splits, and there appears a quaint thing with long feathery legs, a
big head, a spike on the back of its head, and another spike like a
nose.

Who would suspect this strange atom would turn into a Crab! Well, nobody
did. It was called a _zoea_; but you can call it a Crab caterpillar or
larva