FREE MESSMATES. 5 



without any regard for the hospitaKty which he receives, 

 he seizes on his j)ortion of all that enters. The Fier- 

 asfer contrives to cause himself to be served by a 

 neighbour better provided than himself with the means 

 of fishing. 



Dr. Greef, at present Professor at Marbourg, found 

 at Madeu'a a holothmia of a foot in length, in which a 

 vigorous Fierasfer lived in peace. Quoy and Gaimard, 

 in the account of their voyage round the world, have 

 remarked long since, that the Fierasfer hornei is found 

 in the Stichojms tuherculosus. 



The holothuriae seem to exist under very advan- 

 tageous conditions in this respect, since we see Fier- 

 asfers, which are themselves tolerable gluttons, accom- 

 panied by Paleemons and Pinnotheres in the same 

 animal. Professor C. Semper has seen holothuriae 

 in the Philippine Islands which bore a considerable 

 resemblance, in this respect, to an hotel with its 

 table d'hote. 



These singular fishes have been long noticed, but it 

 was not till recently that their presence in a host so low 

 in the scale as a holothurian could be explained. 



But if naturalists are agreed as to the bond which 

 unites these fishes to the holothuriae, they do not agree 

 as to the organs which they inhabit in their living hotel. 

 Do they lodge in the digestive cavity of the holothuriae, 

 or do they inhabit the arborescent respiratory processes 

 which open at the jDosterior extremity of the body ? 

 Until recently it was thought that it was in then- 

 stomach, but a doubt has arisen. Professor Semper, 

 who has studied these animals with particular care 

 at the Philij^pine Islands, had the curiosity to open 



