128 POPULAR HISTORY OF THE AQUARIUif. 



be very active, throwing out their threads in various direc- 

 tions, moving from one spot to another, and easily holding 

 and devouring any small shrimps or other marine animals 

 that its long-reaching tentacula bring near enough to its 

 mouth. In confinement they are very difficult to keep 

 alive, and even while still surviving they seem to lose much 

 of their strength and activity ; in short, not taking kindly 

 to their confinement, they soon become weak in all their 

 functions and die. 



ZOANTHUS COUCHII 



Eesembles a cluster of small Actinim united together by 

 a creeping, root-like, fleshy band. Each Actinoid body is 

 capable of contracting into a half-globe, like the true Acti- 

 nioi, or of extending its trunk and expanding its tentacular 

 disc like them ; while its connection with others of its 

 race by means of a fleshy band which unites many indivi- 

 duals, takes it out of simple, and places it with compound 

 Zoophytes. Thus it presents one of those anomalous forms 

 with which every part of Nature^s great series is studded, 

 and which shows that the God of Nature will not be re- 

 stricted in the fashion of his works by wise rules of uni- 

 formity invented by man. Man would have had all Hydrse 



