CoUingtvood's Ra7nbles in the China Seas 365 



' These suspicions were subsequently verified ; for on the reefs of Pulo 

 Pappan, near the island of Labuan, in company with Mr Low, we met with 

 more than one specimen of this gigantic sea anemone, and the fish, so unmis- 

 takeable in its appearance when once seen, again in its neighbourhood* Raking 

 about with a stick in the body of the anemone no less than six fishes of the 

 same species and of various sizes were by degrees dislodged from the cavity of 

 the zoophyte, not swimming away and escaping immediately but easily secured 

 on their exit by means of a small hand-net. Thus the connexion existing be- 

 tween this fish and the anemone was demonstrated, though what is the nature 

 and object of that connexion yet remains to be proved. 



"There are at least two species of these anemone-inhabiting fish, and a 

 second species of the same genus differs from that just described in having black 

 and cream-coloured vertical bands instead of orange and white. Such a fish I 

 have seen; evidently related to the first-mentioned, living in a tub which did 

 duty for an aquarium, in the possession of Rlr Low at Labuan, which had been 

 obtained from what was probably a second species of fish-sheltering anemone. 

 This fish was remarkably lively and amusing, and of a disposition I can only 

 describe as knowing, and lived in good health in this tub for several months — a 

 proof that the connexion between these animals, whatever its nature, is not ab- 

 solutely essential for the fish at least " — (p. 152). 



Greatly to its detriment we do not doubt — as surely as the 

 residence of an oyster in the stomach of a gastronome would be to 

 it. This is not a case of parasitism on the exterior of the body, 

 nor of a parasite specially framed to spend its life in its interior, 

 nor of an animal taking occasional refuge under the wing of another 

 like the Pinnotheres pisum within the valves of the horse mussel. 

 A Holothuria, from the same seas, of which a figure is given in the 

 "Voyage of the Astrolabe" (Holothuria ananas), is said to shelter 

 a fish in this manner, and we doubt not for a similar purpose. 

 The notodelphs and other small crustaceans, which are said to 

 take refuge in the sac of some Ascidians is another parallel case. 

 Some years since * we argued that these small animals were not 

 guests taking refuge with a host, but victims to its appetite. We 

 found in the sac of Ascidea virginea that although many of the noto- 

 delphs were swimming about quite lively, others were lying dead 

 against its walls, and others were half digested, and we accounted 

 for the circumstance of any being alive by the large size of the sac 

 and the small size of the notodelphs. It might be some time 

 before they were seized or entangled in the ciliated meshes of its 

 walls. We think the case of Dr Collingwood's sea-anemone and 

 banded fish quite parallel to the ascidians and the notodelphs. 

 The fish were being devoured by the anemone, and the proof of 



Murray in Proc. Royal Soc, Edin. 1858. 



