Naturalist.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 386, 1 October 1903, Page 7

Naturalist.

SOME ENEMIES, OF OYSTERS. ©ffjSSHE recent scare make 3 a little book WMi cllllod '' The Oyster and Dredgers §§§§3 of Whitstable' appropriate read-

ing. The book, as its name implies, treats more especially of the cult of the 'na' ive' at Whitstable, and it contains a lot of information about the care and trouble taken in their cultivation. It shows tbat even the inoffensive hermitlike oyster has his natural enemies, besides the land enemies caused by the typhoid scara. The sea-urchin and 'fivefinger' are his natural foes. The latter lays hold of the oyster with its long fingers and holds on tenaciously for days together, waiting for the bivalve to open. Immediately the unsuspecting oyster opens his mouth, so to speak, the enemy injects a liquid which seems to stupefy the victim. Thereupou the five-finger, which is better knowa to towu dwellers as the common starfish, sends his stomach into the open shells, devours the oyster, and, withdrawing from tie empty shells, no doubt goes off with that satisfied feeling which the true oyster-lover knows so well.

The Artful Cbab

I The crab does not go t) any trouble over his meal'. When an oyster ia ill or weak it is unable to keep ita shells closed so that it falls an easy prey to the designing crab. Bartholomew Anglicas > in his woik on the ' Proper' ias of Taiaga,' published about 1260 ad., says:—-'The crab is enemy to the oyster. For he liveth by fish thereof with a wonderful wit. For because that he may not open the hard shall of the oyster, ho spieth and awaiteth when the oyster openeth, and then the crab, that lieth in wait, taketh a little stone, and put it between the shells, that the oyster may not close himself. And when the closing is so let (hindered), the crab esteth and gnaweth the flash of the oy&ter.' From which it may ba inferred that the crab ie somewhat wise in his generation. Another enemy is the dog* whelk, which seems to be an artist at the craft of oyster extraction. This fish has tools to work with, and uees a file-like weapon to bore a hole in the oyster's shell, after which proceeding it inserts a sucker, and extracts the juciest part of its prey. O/sters were a favourite dish at Roman banquets, and it is said that 'Soman Empresses, who were not always the moet virtuous and devoted of wives. frequently employed the bivalve as an agreeable method of administering poison to their lords—to say nothing of their lovers.' Pliny frequently speaks of oysters as being an article of food, and Sallust, who lived about 50 b 0., in giving his opinion of the Briton of his day, saya: —'The poor Britons—there is some go 3d in them after all—they produoe an oyster.' THE BATTLESNAKB. The skin of the diamond-back rattlesnake is a home-made barometer ia FJorida. When preserved like raw hide and hung up, the skin will begin to emit beads of moisture at the first indications of a storm, even thcugh several hours before the arrival of the atmospheric disturbance. Amongst the foremost of Chinese dainties are black cats which are considered moat excellent eating, and a pair of black oat's eyes ia s*uce commands a ' high ">tioe.