38 CORALS AND CORAL ISLANDS, 
sume he was somewhat sharp-set. He marked the Anthea 
falling, 
ern of a mouth and sucked in the bonne bouche. It was not 
and before it could reach the bottom, opened his cay- 
to his taste, however, for as instantly he shot it out again. Not 
discouraged, he returned to the attack, and once more sucked 
it in, but with no better success; for, after a moment’s rolling 
of the morsel around his mouth, out it shot once more; and 
now the Bullhead, acknowledging his master, turned tail, and 
darted into a hole on the opposite side of the tank in manifest 
discomfiture.” 
He adds: ‘‘ But if you, my gentle reader, be disposed for 
exploits in gastronomy, do not be alarmed at the Bullhead’s 
failure: only take the precaution to “‘cook your hare.” Risso 
calls this species ‘‘ edulis,” 
and says of it,—‘t On le mange en 
friture,” and I can say, “‘probatum est.” No squeamishness 
of stomach prevents our volatile friends, the French, from 
appreciating its excellence; for the dish called Aastegna, 
which is a great favorite in Provence, is mainly prepared from 
Anthea cereus. 1 would not dare to say that an Opelet is as 
good as an Omelet; but chacun a son gout—try for your- 
selves, ‘The dish is readily achieved.” 
The stomach, although without a proper sphincter muscle 
at its inner extremity, appears to be closed below during the 
process of digestion. When digestion is complete, the refuse 
from the food is pushed out through the mouth, the only ex- 
ternal opening to the alimentary cavity, and the digested ma- 
terial passes downward, into the interior cavity; and there, 
mixed with sea-water from without, it is distributed through 
all the interior cavities of the polyp for its nutrition, The 
polyp has no circulating fluid but the results of digestion 
mixed with salt water, no blood-vessels but the vacuities among 
the tissues, and no passage-way for excrements excepting the 
