ers" by turn. That is to say,
they are always seeking other creatures to devour, but must also be
ready to hide from their own enemies.

_Eating and being eaten_--that is the life of the sea. The small and
weak ones must hide, and their lives depend on their skill in hiding.
Perhaps we should not call it a "game," as it is not done for fun. But,
though the sea is full of danger for some creatures, you must not think
that they live in fear. There is no doubt that they enjoy their lives,
each in its own way.

Many are the quaint dodges and tricks of the hiders and seekers in the
sea. We can mention but a few in this lesson. Look at the Spider Crabs,
and their trick of dressing up. They have hooks on their backs, which
catch in the seaweed. Some of them even tear off weed with their
pincers, and fix it on to these hooks, and succeed in looking like
bundles of weed, and not a bit like living Crabs.

Then there are the fish which wear a coloured scaly coat. Many of them
are not easily seen in the glinting water, as you know. Others are lazy;
they lie on the bed of the sea, and wear a disguise which hides them
from prowling foes. The Plaice and other flat-fish, as we noticed in
Lesson 2, are coloured and marked like the sand and pebbles of their
home; and they can even change colour to suit their background. They are
wonderfully hidden, owing to this useful dodge. It is as if Mother
Nature had given them the marvellous "cloak of invisibility," of which
we read in fairy-tales.

Shrimps and young Crabs wear a coat of sand-colour or weed-colour. Our
soldiers, for much the same reason, wear suits of _khaki_.

Another common hide-and-seek trick is to look like nothing at all. That
sounds difficult, but it is a favourite dodge in the sea. If a number of
very young Herrings or Eels were placed in a glass tank of sea-water,
you would have a hard task to find them. You can look _at_ them, and yet
not see them. They are transparent--you look through them as if they
were water or glass. You can imagine how well hidden they are in the
open sea.

It is well to be able to hide, when all around you are enemies who look
on you as good food. But there is another way, and that is to wear
armour. Then you can frighten your enemy, or at least prevent him from
eating you. Some fish, like the Trunk Fish, (p. 52, No. 6), are covered
with bony plates, jointed together like armour. Spines and prickles are
a commoner defence.

The little Stic