At first sight, perhaps, you would hardly take this creature for a limpet at all, for it is ever so much smaller than either the common or the key-hole limpets, and has a very thin and delicate shell indeed. It varies a good deal in colour, but generally the shell is pale brown, looking almost like polished horn, with eight or nine narrow streaks of bright blue running down from the peak to the margin. It is often called the “bonnet shell,” because in shape it is rather like an old-fashioned bonnet. You may often find the empty shells of this creature lying upon the shore. But if you take them home you will find that as soon as they become dry the beautiful blue streaks begin to fade, and that after a few days you can hardly see them at all. PLATE XI THE CUP AND SAUCER LIMPET (4) This is a very curious creature indeed. But if you want to see why its rather odd name was given to it, you must look inside its shell instead of outside. Then you will see that in the upper part is a curved plate which really looks very much like a tiny tea-cup, while the shell itself surrounds it just like a saucer. And if you were to examine the animal which lives inside it very carefully, and to pull out its long tooth-ribbon, you would find at the tip of it a curious little organ which looks just like a tea-spoon. So that we have cup, saucer, and spoon all in one! Perhaps you may wonder what the odd little cup is for. Well, the fact is that the muscles by means of which the animal clings to the rock are very strong indeed. So, of course, there must be something else very strong to which they can be fastened, and this cup-shaped plate gives them a very firm hold. The cup and saucer limpet is not a very common creature, and in many parts of the coast it is never met with at all. But if you stay by the sea-side on the south coast of England, you may sometimes find its empty shell lying upon the shore. [Illustration: PLATE XI 1. THE LIMPET. 2. THE KEY-HOLE LIMPET. 3. THE SMOOTH LIMPET. 4. THE CUP AND SAUCER LIMPET.] PLATE XII THE PAINTED TOP (1) Tops are generally very common indeed on the sandy parts of the shore. You cannot possibly mistake their shells for those of any other creatures, for they are cone-shaped, looking very much like rather flattened sugar-loaves, and are generally very beautifully coloured. So pretty are they, indeed, that they are sometimes strung together and worn as necklaces, or used for ornamenting ladies’ dresses.