134? POPULAR HISTORY OF THE AQUARIUM. 



and sides some distance down; secondly^ of tentacula re- 

 sembling those, of an Actinia, which seem to be irregularly 

 placed on various parts of the film^ and to make the inter- 

 stices their home when withdrawn between them; thirdly, 

 the scalloped fringe surrounding the mouth ; fourthly, the 

 mouth itself, represented by a central slit. The most beau- 

 tiful specimen in the Aquarium of the Zoological Society is 

 one in which the enveloping skin is of a delicate salmon- 

 tint, the tentacula tinged with purple, the frill in the 

 centre bright crimson, and the mouth, or rather lips, white. 

 The tentacula have swellings or knobs on the tips ; but these 

 are not, in the Zoological specimens, nearly so distinct nor 

 so remarkable as represented in the ' Devonshire Rambles.'' 



" The feeding of the Madrepores,^' remarks the Author of 

 the last-mentioned Work, "affords much amusement; they 

 are very greedy, and the presence of food stimulates them 

 to more active efforts, and the display of greater intelli- 

 gence, than we should give them credit for. I put a 

 minute spider, as large as a pin's head, into the water, 

 pushing it down with a bit of grass to a Coral, which was 

 lying with partially exposed tentacles. The instant the in- 

 sect touched the tip of a tentacle, it adhered, and was drawn 

 in with the surrounding tentacles between the plates, near 



