It gives up
eating, and roves about looking and feeling for a place to settle on.
Finding a suitable spot, the little animal stands on its head. Then a
kind of glue is formed, which fixes it for life to that place, head
down. The two shells and the two eyes are now thrown off. The Barnacle
quickly builds up a shelly house, and, after a life of adventure and
change, becomes a fixed Barnacle for the rest of its days.
For many years people knew little of this strange animal. All its
wonderful changes, and the way its body is made, tell us plainly that
the Barnacle is actually first cousin to the Crab, Lobster, Shrimp and
Prawn! It belongs to the class known as the _Crustacea_; but, for some
reason or other, it has chosen to live its grown-up life fixed to a
rock.
EXERCISES
1. How does the Shrimp swim?
2. Of what use are Shrimps and Prawns in the sea?
3. How can you tell a live Shrimp from a live Prawn?
4. How does the Barnacle obtain its food?
5. Give the names of five crustaceans.
LESSON VI.
PLANTS OF THE SHORE.
To pick a bunch of gay flowers you would look in the fields and
hedge-rows, and not by the sea.
Pages:
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54