368 THE RED-LINED CHRYSAORA. 



snugly ensconces himself, and feels so mucli at home, 

 that he is not afraid to leave his dwelling now and 

 then, to take a swim in the free w^ater ; returning to 

 his chamber after his exercise. 



That this is the natural habit of life followed by 

 this Crustacean, I have no doubt. There were three 

 or four specimens on this Ckrt/saora, and I have 

 found it parasitic on other large Medusae. But there 

 were also on the one I am describing a vast number 

 of minute white specks, which on examination proved 

 to be little Crustacea, and, as I suspect, the larvse of 

 this species. They are not larger than a grain of 

 sand, shaped somewhat like a toad, with the abdomen 

 distinctly separated, narrow, and bent abruptly under, 

 in the manner of the Brachyura. (See Plate XXII. 

 fig. 15). 



To return, however, to our Medusa. Though this 

 genus is described as peculiarly phosphorescent, I 

 found this specimen scarcely at all luminous. A 

 very slight and dull flash or two was all that I could 

 obtain, with repeated pushings and other disturbances 

 of the animal in the dark. . 



The appearance of this fine Medusa in captivity 

 was noble and imposing. I kept it for several days 

 in a deep glass vase of clear sea-water, where its 

 chestnut-lobed umbrella, throbbing with a continual 

 pulsation, throwing its circle of hanging tentacles 

 into a succession of serpentine undulations, and its 

 long four-fold fringe of gauze-like flounces, floating 

 through the water, formed a sight which the beholders 

 were never weary of admiring, and from which we 

 could scarcely withdraw our eyes. Its pulsations 



