120 GLAUCUS; OR, 
emerald green, as brilliant as the gorget of a hum- 
ming-bird.” 
And what does this exquisitely delicate creature 
do with its pretty mouth? Alas for fact! It sips 
no honey-dew, or fruits from paradise—“I put a | 
minute spider, as large as a pin’s head, into the 
water, pushing it down to the coral. The instant it 
touched the tip of a tentacle, it adhered, and was 
drawn in with the surrounding tentacles between the 
plates. With a lens I saw the small mouth slowly 
open, and move over to that side, the lips gaping 
unsymmetrically ; while with a movement as imper- 
ceptible as that of the hour hand of a watch, the 
tiny prey was carried along between the plates to 
the corner of the mouth. The mouth, however, 
moved most, and at length reached the edges of 
the plates, gradually closed upon the insect, and 
then returned to its usual place in the centre.” 
Mr. Gosse next tried the fairy of the walking 
mouth with a house-fly, who escaped only by hard 
fighting ; and at last the gentle creature, after swal- 
lowing and disgorging various large pieces of shell- 
