THE DAHLIA WARTLET. 215 



Shore-crab ( Carcinus) is its ordinary prey, but it feeds on 

 limpets, and other Mollusca. Dr. Johnston tells of one 

 that had swallowed a valve of trie Great Scallop, and of 

 the strange result;* Dr. E. P. Wright had one which 

 discharged as the remains of his evening's meal, " a mode- 

 rate sized Fusus, and a mass of Nereids and Shrimps, that 

 exhaled such a fearful smell as killed all my tank-full;" 

 and one in Mr. F. H. West's possession actually made 

 a ho)ine boitche of an Echinus miliaris, as large as a shilling, 

 making no bones of the spines. Two days afterwards 

 the shell of the Urchin was disgorged, perfectly empty, 

 denuded of its spines, the oral plates crushed in, and partly 

 wanting. The common Blenny and other fishes frequently 

 fall victims to the rapacity of this gourmand, which spares 

 not its own kindred. 



The tentacles are very adhesive, as is sufficiently mani- 

 fest to our fingers, when we touch them ; and contact with 

 these organs is amply sufficient to resist the most vigorous 

 attempts to escape of the animals above-mentioned. 



Beautiful as is the Dahlia, it is not a very frequent 

 tenant of our aquariums ; as it is one of the most difficult 

 to keep. I have, however, kept specimens for four and 

 five months ; and Mr. West still longer ; for the epicure 

 whose urchin-diet is recorded above, had been then nine 

 months in captivity. It appears to be little able to sustain 

 extremes of temperature. The heat of summer is generally 

 fatal to our captive specimens ; and a severe winter makes 

 havoc among those which are in the enjoyment of freedom. 

 After the intense and protracted frost of February, 1855, 

 the shores of South Devon were strewn with dead and 

 dying Anemones, principally of this species, which were 

 rolled helplessly on the beach, their bodies almost concealed 

 by the protruding craspeda. This symptom is almost the 



* Brit. Zooph. i. 235. 



