CIRRIPEDIA. 



235 



like appamtiis will be protruded, and ai>ain witli- 

 <lrawn. After a few secvinds this movement will 

 be repeated, and again and again the feathery struc- 

 tures will be put forth, and retracted with such grace, 

 regularity, and precision, that 

 they present an appearance ex- 

 quisitely beautiful. These are 

 the arms or Cirri of the con- 

 tained animal. AYhen fully 

 expanded, it will be seen that 

 their plumose and flexible stems 

 form a most wonderful pre- 

 hensile apparatus, admirably 

 adapted to entangle any nutri- 

 tious particles or minute living 

 creatures that may happen to 

 be present in the circumscribed 

 space over which this singular 

 castino'-net is thrown, and dra^: 

 them down into the vicinity of ,. ,; 

 the mouth, where, being seized ,^';?',/ . 

 by the iaws, thev are crushed '' '' 



^ -t "^ . . I I- 1 A"^ Fig. 179.— cirri of barnacle. 



and appropriated as lood. JNo 



sense but that of touch is required for the success 

 of this singular mode of fishing, and the delicacy 

 with which the arms perceive the slightest contact 

 of foreign bodies, shows that they are eminently sen- 

 sitive. 



It is from these remarkably-constructed limbs or 

 Cirri that the Order derives its name. xVlthough 

 in then- adult state the Cirripedes are fixed and sta- 

 tionary, and enclosed in dense and strong shells, the 

 newly-hatched young present a very different shape, 

 and, strange to say, are furnished with limbs calcu- 

 lated to enable them to swim freely about, under the 

 appearance of Entomostracous Crustaceans ; and it is 

 only after undergoing several changes of form, that 

 they lose their Avandering habits. The young Cirri- 

 pedes, on emerging from the eggs, are very different 

 in structure from their parents. They possess loco- 



