44 



HYDRO IDS AND JELLY-FISHED. 



swimming bells, as they are called, various little in- 

 dividuals, each one working in its own way for the 



general good, are scat- 

 tered along this living 

 string. Some are the 

 feeders ; they have only 

 to catch and eat the prey, 

 and, having digested it, 

 to pass it along to all the 

 rest; others are the egg- 

 bearers, from which new 

 individuals are born ; and 

 others still there are, 

 whose function is not yet 

 explained. All are fur- 

 nished with fine, flexible, 

 thread-like tentacles, and 

 these tentacles are ever 

 in motion, sometimes 

 caught up in coils or 

 loops, sometimes flung 

 out like fairy ropes, and 

 upon their whole length 

 little bright red pendants 

 are hung, giving a rosy 

 color to the whole com- 

 munity. 



Another of these com- 

 munities is the beautiful 

 animal, or combination of animals, commonly known in 

 the Gulf of Mexico as the Portuguese Man-of-War* 



* No. 34 Physalia. 



No. 34. 



