SKELETAL FKAxMEWORK. 9 



partiality for seaweed than for animal diet, 

 and so leave them undisturbed. Or it may 

 have this ettect — that the unwary and desir- 

 able quarry upon which they feed can approach 

 them without fear or misgiving. However 

 this may be, the resemblance is so striking, 

 that even the student may now and then be 

 deceived. 



Budding, common in lower animals. 

 The process of throwing out buds, which 

 become detached, is common to other low 

 forms of life besides the hydroids ; but this 

 peculiar habit of continuous permanent 

 budding is nowhere else carried to so high a 

 degree, except in the nearly allied Coral 

 polyps,* and the somewhat distant Polyzoa. 



The Skeleton. The polypary. 

 Hydroid animals, being of such an extremely 

 delicate and slender nature, demand, like 

 most other animals, some support and 

 protection in the form of a skeleton, either 

 internal or external. That which the hydroids 

 have developed, is in the form of an external 



♦For the purpose of distinction the hydroid animal is 

 termed a Polypite ; the coral animal a Polyp ; and the polyzoa 

 a Polypide. Polyp meaning "many footed," and the termina- 

 tions, ide and ite, " like." 



