ii6 



THE MUSEUM. 



ish or pink with radiating lines of pur- 

 ple or deep red, which embraces the • 

 base of the tentacles. Occasionally 

 shore specimens are found having the 

 body uniformly bright red, crimson or 

 pink, with a lighter colored disk and 

 tentacles. The tentacles are usually 

 banded with white in all varieties, but 

 are sometimes uniform pink and trans- 

 lucent. Other species often have the 

 body pink mottled with orange red or 

 blotched with crimson. The speci- 

 mens from deep water have generally 

 brighter and clearer colors than those 

 of the shore, but are quite as commonly 

 found mottled with two or more shades 

 of red, as of uniform red or pink col- 

 ors. 



The habits of this fine Actinia are 

 much like those of the last, and the 

 young are produced in the same man- 

 ner. It attains a much greater size, 

 for specimens are not uncommon 

 which are two inches high and four or 

 five in diameter when e.xpanded. The 

 largest, however, are apt to be troub- 

 lesome inmates of an aquarium, on ac- 

 count of their remarkable voracity, for 

 nothing seems to come amiss to them. 

 They will capture and swallow hshes 

 of considerable size, as well as crabs, 

 mollusks, etc., and have even been 

 known to swallow the spiny sea ur- 

 chins of considerable size. Other Ac- 

 tinias, even, are not safe in the neigh- 

 borhood. Such large specimens also 

 have a singular habit of frequently pro- 

 truding the stomach, and even turning 

 it wrong side out, as if affected with 

 nausea, which certainly adds nothing 

 to their beauty. But specimens of 

 small' or medium sizes make very in- 

 teresting pets, and are often more 

 beautifully colored than the large ones. 

 In Massachusetts Bay this species is 

 seldom found except by dredging, 

 when it usually comes up adhering to 

 stones and dead shells. It inhabits 

 all depths down to forty fathoms at 

 least. At Eastport, Grand Menan 

 and other islands at the mouth of the 

 Bay of Fundy, where the enormous 

 tides leave exposed, at low water, a 



wide zone, unusual facilities are af- 

 forded for obtaining all sorts of 

 rare and curious productions, which 

 on other parts of the coast can be ob- 

 tained only by dredging in deep water; 

 On these shores the two large Solas- 

 ters, or starfishes, with ten or twelve 

 rays and beautiful colors, together 

 with several other rare starfishes, the 

 Daisey Serpent Star {Ophiopliolis bcl- 

 lis, Lyman), the many armed Basket 

 Fish \Astropliyton Agassizii, St imp - 

 son), several large and curious Holo- 

 thurians, the elegant Alcyonium, the 

 much sought Terebratula, many cur- 

 ious and beautiful Ascidians, among 

 which the Cynthia [Cyntliia pyrifor- 

 mis, Ratlikc) or "Sea Peach" is one 

 of the finest and a great variety of 

 rare shells, may ail be obtained at low 

 water mark, during the extreme tides, 

 together with a great abundance of the 

 three Actinias above named. 



The Red, like the Star Sea Anem- 

 one, loves best the fissures and crev- 

 ices of the rocks and ledges, that are 

 thickly overgrown with fuci and other 

 sea weeds, svhich furnish a complete 

 protection to the animals nesting 

 among the rocks. Even among the 

 lofty wharves of Eastport there are 

 ledges in the crevices -of which hun- 

 dreds of these Anemones used to be 

 found. 



The White Armed Sea Anemone, 

 {Sagartia lettcolcna, I'err.), unlike 

 the three preceding species, is practi- 

 cally unknown except along the south- 

 ern coasts of New England, upon the 

 shores of Long Island Sound and near 

 New York City. This Actinia is more 

 nearly related to the Fringed-anem- 

 one than to the others, aiW like that 

 has slender tentacles and loop-holes 

 along the sides of the body, out of 

 which threads of stringing darts issue, 

 which are lacking in the two last spe- 

 cies. But this is a smaller, and more 

 delicate kind, seldom growing more 

 than three inches high and one in di- 

 ameter, and the tentacles are much 

 longer and not so numerous. The 

 body is the same texture from base to 



