Actinia mesembryanthemum. 81 



flesh, variegated with markings. The parasitic mite (IV. 538.) 

 usually abounds upon them. 



L. Sowerbyz and other out-door slugs feed readily on any 

 discarded bone they may meet with : fish bones are not dis- 

 liked. On Sept. 18. 1834, I found a larger L. Sowerbyz 

 feeding on a living smaller one of its own species: it had 

 eaten the head and a portion of the body of it; the remaining 

 portion was still alive. This is the only instance of this habit 

 which I have witnessed, since supposing the existence of it in 

 V. 696. 



A gardener, Mr. Peter Martin, has, in the Gard. Mag. 

 (viii. 149. 370.), described a means of decoying slugs and snails, 

 which one who has tried it has found effectual. Warm cab- 

 bage leaves until they are quite soft; suffuse the hands 

 slightly with unsalted greasy matter of any kind, melted ; 

 and then pass the leaves one by one between the hands, 

 applying these with a little clap to both faces of the leaf, so 

 that some taint of grease may be transferred from the hands 

 to the leaf. Leaves thus prepared, laid in the haunts of the 

 slugs and snails, are found to attract them to the leaves; so 

 that the gardener can readily collect them for destruction.] 



Art. IV. Illustrations in British Zoology. By George John- 

 ston, M.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edin- 

 burgh. 



29. Acti'nia mesembrya'nthemum. {Jig. 12.) 

 Synonymes. — Priapm equinus Lin. y Syst. edit. 10. p. 656. Hydra dis- 

 cifldra, tentaculis retractilibus, extimo disci margine tuberculato, Gcertner, 

 in Phil. Trans., Hi. 83. t. l.f.5. Actinia equina Lin., Syst., p. 1088.; 

 Dicquemare, in Phil. Trans., lxiii. 364. t. 16. f. 1 — 7.; Mull. y Zool. Dan. 

 fr. p. 231. no. 2793. ; Flem., Br. Anim., p. 497. ; Cuv., Reg. Anim., iii. 292. 

 Ac. mesembryanthemum Soland., Zooph., p. 4.; Turf., Br. Faun., p. 131. 

 Ac. hemisphae'rica Pen., Brit. Zool., iv. 104. ; Berk., Syn., i. 186. Ac. 

 riifa Stew., Elern., i. 393.; Lam., Anim. s. Vert., iii. 67. Hydra mesem- 

 bryanthemum Stew., Elem. ii. 451. 



There are few more common or more beautiful animals 

 on our shores than Actinia mesembryanthemum. It lives 

 between tide-marks, and is to be met with almost everywhere ; 

 but here it prefers the cavernous recesses, or coves> which the 

 tide has hollowed out in our bold rocky coast. The floor 

 and sides of these gloomy caves are studded with numerous 

 specimens, hanging in a somewhat horizontal position, for 

 they are rarely to be observed either quite erect or pendulous. 

 Many are left long uncovered by the recess of every tide, 



Vol. VIII. — No. 46. g 



