140 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



the invisible aliment floating in the water : yet they 

 either could not, or would not, eat this Crustacean. 



No one can have taken Anemones from the rocks 

 without observing fragments of small crabs, and some- 

 times whole crabs, as big as crown pieces, in their 

 stomachs ; but the question whether these crabs were 

 captured alive by the Anemones is not thereby an- 

 swered. Without absolutely denying that the Ane- 

 mone does thus capture them, I am forced by repeated 

 observation and experiment, to declare that the evidence 

 all points in the direction of a denial. I remember once 

 accidentally dropping a tiny crab on the expanded oral 

 disc of a Crassicornis, whose mouth was wide open ; 

 and very amusing it was to see the little creature rush 

 into the open mouth, settle himself comfortably there, 

 and begin twittering his antennae, as crabs do when 

 their alarm subsides. The Grass never moved : owing 

 to the insensibility of the stomach, he was quite undis- 

 turbed by this refugee — in this by no means resem- 

 bling the Cyclops of Euripides, who energetically repu- 

 diates the idea of swallowing the satyr : 



" You in my stomacTi ? Horror, if I had ! 

 Yoixr capering antics there would drive me mad." * 



The crab remained twittering for some minutes. I 

 touched him, and he retreated deeper down into the 

 cavity. Looking into the pan some time after, I found 

 he had crawled away, so I gave him to an Anthea, 



7r7j5ctij/T€S aTToAeVatr' av vtto tuv axf\!^°'-'^^'-'- 

 — Cyclops, V. 220. 



