a sense of approaching danger, I determined by 

 removing my hand from its neighborhood : the be- 

 havior was the same. I may say, in parenthesis, that 

 the sense of sight in Serpula, as in all the higher, 

 or segmented, worms that possess it, is developed 

 only to the point wherein light is distinguished 

 from darkness, or, at best, to such degree that only 

 the crudest image of near objects can be formed. 



But a stronger glass and a more careful scrutiny 

 made matters plain. It was patent that this tube- 

 dweller, like the microscopic members of its class, 

 derived its food from the floating particles drawn 

 into the vortex of its branchial current. But com- 

 pared with the whirlpools of minuter forms, that 

 of Serpula was a miniature maelstrom. Conse- 

 quently, a goodly-sized creature was occasionally 

 caught among the streaming particles; when this 

 occurred, the entangling petals closed around it 

 like a trap, and the victim was instantly hauled 

 into the tube to be engulfed. 



Yet the frightful fact that this flower-like ap- 

 pendage functions as a deadly device, and the 

 equally flagrant fact that its possessor is a worm, 

 need not detract from one's appreciation of its in- 

 herent beauty. 



[160] 



