Street urchin

“ If the dog had chosen to decamp, that would be another matter. There was a good deal to be said against returning him to the scene of his injury; but there was more to be said against turning an injured cur loose to the mercies of street urchins such as must, by day, infest a neighborhood like this. Dan wished the animal would run away ”

“ Such a regular urchin as has here been described lives with the mouth downwards, preferring a hard floor, on which it creeps by its podia and its radioles, constantly scraping the algae and seaweeds from the rock with its teeth and so feeding itself. If it does not bore a hole, or is not protected by long needle like radioles, it may grasp bits of sea-weed or other objects with its pedicellariae and hide beneath them from the fish that seek it for food.
The Irregular urchins (fig. 3) have been modified for another way of life. Some of them live in mud or ooze, through which they creep. ”

“ In spite of its unwieldy horns and staring eyes, which give it a savage look, it is abject before its keeper, usually a small, black urchin with a shaven head and a piece of string tied tightly round his waist for clothing. ”

“ How that urchin, who, being deprived of his natural rest at night, constantly sleeps whilst driving by day, is to steer through the omnibuses in Piccadilly, is a matter of speculation for those who love “horrid accidents”; but it is fortunate that the magnificent animal knows his own way home, and will only stop once, at a door in Park Lane, where he is used to being pulled up, and where, we are concerned to add, his master has no business, although he is sufficiently welcome. ”

“ Look at the slim slip of a boy who gravely walks at the head of this team of enormous fawn-coloured oxen, toilsomely dragging their ponderous load up a hill so steep as almost to need a ladder to ascend. The urchin cannot be more than ten or eleven, and in any other country would alternately skip and idle, or at least allow his attention to wander with every fresh object that struck his fancy. ”

“ Over to the left I saw an unhappy little urchin, hardly a rag covering his shivering, bleeding body, grovelling piteously in the snow, while his blind and goitrous mother did her best at gathering firewood with a hatchet. The pass leading over this range, through which the white crystalline flakes were driven wildly in one's face, was a half-moon of smooth rock actually worn away by the endless tramping of myriads of pack-ponies, who then were plodding through ruts of steps almost as high as their haunches. ”

“ Between the rows of knobs are five double rows of holes, like pin-pricks. Out of these grow such little suckers as I told you the star-fish had.
In some countries the sea-urchins are small—not much larger than a dime. In warmer seas the urchins grow large, even as large as a large orange. People often use these larger ones for food.
The sea-urchin walks on his spines, as the cross-star-fish does on his. But as the quills of the urchin are all around him, like a ball-cover, his walk is a roll! By the little suckers he can cling to the rocks, and he can climb up their sides. ”

“ When a child cries for the moon, and a cloud comes and covers up the coveted bauble, and hides it away, the urchin has small comfort in being told that it is just as near the object of its desires as when it could see it, and look, and long, and stretch its tiny hands. ”

“ We thank her, but prefer to drink the cool water of the nuts from the shell.
The brown-skinned urchins, upon seeing their mother in friendly conversation with the strangers, return to the clearing and eye us with wonder and some distrust. They are on their little toes, so to speak, watching for the slightest suspicious movement, ready to fly to the protective jungle. Their big sloe eyes grow wistful as we offer them some pennies and their mother reassures them, finally overcoming their fears and bringing them to the place where we are crouched upon our haunches with hands outstretched. ”

“ The children, who love her as their own eyes—for she has been as a pet about the family, summer and winter, since that chubby-cheeked urchin, of some five years old, first began to swing in his self-rocking cradle—will scarcely care to see her started—nay, one or two of the wickedest among them will join in the halloo ”

“ The attachment of the larger radioles is protected by a ring of smaller ones. These and the other small spines protect the sea-urchin, as its prickles protect a hedgehog; the larger ones may also help the animal to move or to fix itself firmly against the shock of waves. Some urchins, especially the purple egg-urchin, bore holes even in very hard rocks, and by stretching out their radioles they can hold themselves immovably in their holes ”

“ So a sea urchin is able to move its spines about quite freely. Indeed, it sometimes walks with them as well as with the little sucker-feet, which it pokes out through tiny holes in the shell just as a starfish does, moving a few forward at a time, and so hitching [112] its way along over the sand at the bottom of the sea.
If you succeed in finding a live sea urchin—and you can generally do so without very much trouble, by hunting in the pools among the rocks when the tide is out—you will notice that it has a very big mouth, with five perfectly enormous teeth. ”

“ Smutty-faced, ragged little urchins many of them are, dressed in clothes and shoes a world too big for them; and yet, when the dirt is washed from their faces, there is the glance of keen intelligence, and often comely features, underneath. ”

“ Along comes an irresponsible urchin, who has not been growing much longer than the tree, with not twenty-five cents worth of clothing on him, and in five minutes takes off every pear, and retires into safe obscurity. ”

“ They may help in capturing small prey, or they may be used when the creature has to fight a larger enemy. They are also certainly of use as cleansing tools. That is to say, they can pick off tiny scraps of weed or dirt which settle on the animal's body. Some Starfishes also own pincers of this sort, but they are not so perfect as those of the funny little Urchin. We must not forget that all these spines, tube-feet, and pincers are worked by a set of muscles.
In the centre of the Urchin's shell is its mouth. The Starfish, we found, had a terrible mouth, but that of the Urchin is worse still. ”

“ The brown-faced quarrymen and fisher-folk grew accustomed to the sight of the pale, plainly-dressed lady with the wistful eyes, who so often paused to rest, or to smile at and speak kindly to the sturdy, sun-burnt urchins that rolled in the dust by cottage thresholds, and pulled off their blue knitted caps as they passed her, in rude homage of her beauty, and respect for her loneliness. ”

“ The manner in which the urchin unfolds itself at the expense of the larva is quite analogous to that which the asterias present: it is another case of alternate generation, of which our space does not permit us to give even a general outline.
Sea-urchins are found in every sea; they dwell in sandy bottoms, and sometimes upon rocky ground. They are caught with wooden pincers when in shallow water; when found at the water's edge, they may be taken by a gloved hand.
The urchin, like the crab, which it also resembles in taste, becomes red when boiled; only certain species are comestible, however. ”

“ It is the most common of all, and seen on every urchin’s string; a simple and inoffensive fish, whose nests are visible all along the shore, hollowed in the sand, over which it is steadily poised through the summer hours on waving fin. Sometimes there are twenty or thirty nests in the space of a few rods, two feet wide by half a foot in depth, and made with no little labor, the weeds being removed, and the sand shoved up on the sides, like a bowl. ”

“ And therefore it seemed to the Urchin's curators sound and advisable to take him out to the Zoo one Sunday afternoon just to suggest to his delightful mind that nothing is impossible in this curious world.
Of course, the amusing feature of such expeditions is that it is always the adult who is astounded, while the child takes things blandly for granted. You or I can watch a tiger for hours and not make head or tail of it—in a spiritual sense, that is—whereas an urchin simply smiles with rapture, isn't the least amazed, and wants to stroke the "nice pussy." ”

“ All urchins are supplied with eggs, but in some of the species the eggs are exceedingly small and unfit for food. Singularly enough, the urchin has what we may call its head and mouth down below, and a place for the issue of the residuum up above; (and this same property is common to all stromboids and to limpets) . For the food on which the creature lives lies down below; consequently the mouth has a position well adapted for getting at the food, and the excretion is above, near to the back of the shell. ”

“ You cannot imagine the wonder and delight of the dusky urchin. For a few seconds he seemed too overcome to speak, and hardly breathed. He looked down at the glittering string, then drew his forefinger from between his lips and gingerly caressed the prize. Growing bolder, he raised the loop to his mouth as if to taste it. Pressing one of the beads with his even white teeth, the tiny glass snapped into fragments, some of which flew several feet away. The youngster was startled and glanced up at Victor, as if expecting a reproof. ”

“ Having waited some little time, he makes his presence known by venting his ill-humour on a ragged urchin, who, being unable to bring his face on a level with the counter by any other process, has employed himself in climbing up, and then hooking himself on with his elbows—an uneasy perch, from which he has fallen at intervals, generally alighting on the toes of the person in his immediate vicinity. ”

“ The fourth, an urchin apparently about five years old,—he might be much younger, judging from his stunted size; somewhat older, judging from the vicious acuteness of his face,—on the floor under his father's chair, was diving his little hand into the paternal pockets in search for a marble sportively hidden in those capacious recesses. ”

“ It has no head—that is, the development of its nervous system and the direction of its locomotion are not fixed in a forward direction, as is the case with vertebrates and insects.
Some members of the sea urchin family have hoof-like formations on the ends of some of their spines, with which they are enabled to walk over the sea bottom without using the suction disks. About the only enemy of these fearsome nightmares of the deep is man. Some species are used extensively for human food, notably among the Mediterranean coast and in the West Indies. ”

“ As the filled harrows are going into the salting-house, we observe a little urchin running by the side of them, and hitting their edges with a long cane, in a constant succession of smart strokes, until they are fairly carried through the gate, when he quickly returns to perform the same office for the next series that arrive. ”

“ There the beach itself ended, and the little Indian plots of land went down to the lake-front.
Glancing around in the great light, she seemed to be sitting isolated in a dark core of shadow, while the world moved in inconsequential specks through the hollow glare. She noticed a dark urchin, nearly naked, marching with naked, manly solemnity down to the water’s edge. He would be about four years’ old, but more manly than an adult man. With sex comes a certain vulnerability which these round-faced, black-headed, stiff-backed infant men have not got. Kate knew the urchin. ”

“ It is forgotten that these urchins who gambol upon village-greens are in many respects favourably circumstanced—that their lives are spent in almost perpetual play; that they are all day breathing fresh air; and that their systems are not disturbed by over-taxed brains. For aught that appears to the contrary, their good health may be maintained, not in consequence of, but in spite of, their deficient clothing. This alternative conclusion we believe to be the true one; and that an inevitable detriment results from the loss of animal heat to which they are subject. ”

“ To a perfect novice in the art of angling, nothing appears simpler than to capture trout with the worm, provided the water be sufficiently muddled to conceal the person and disguise the tackle of the craftsman. A mere urchin, with a pea-stick for a wand, a string for his line, and a pin for his hook, has often, under such favourable circumstances, effected the landing of a good-sized fish. ”

“ Sea urchins, like their allies the starfishes, generally inhabit deep water beyond low-water mark, where they often exist in enormous numbers, feeding on both animal and vegetable substances; but some species are often to be met with between the tide-marks, where they may be seen under stones, and frequently half hidden in mud. The globular species occur principally on rocky coasts, but the heart urchins are more commonly dredged from banks of sand or mud that are always submerged. ”

“ The sea urchin lays eggs, and from these eggs come the young urchins. (What other animal have we already found, that lays eggs?) When they are babies they don't look a bit like their parents. And here is another thing that the sea urchin does that you will remember when we come to kangaroos. Some of the sea urchins carry their babies in pouches. They fold their spines over their babies just as you carry a doll in your arms. ”

“ The music is ended and the crowd disperses. The absence of piggy is unnoticed till the red-headed urchin whose playmate it is looks around for the loved companion, of his childish sports, and finds it not. ”