398 POLYZOA HYPPOCREPIA. 



" The food is conveyed immediately from the mouth or opening 

 between the arms, through a very narrow neck, into a passage seem- 

 ingly correspondent to the oesophagus in land animals ; down which 

 it passes to the stomach, where it remains for some time, and then is 

 voided upwards in small round pellets (which at first I imagined to 

 be its eggs) through the gut, whose exit is near a neck, where it was 

 first taken in. 



" The body of this animal consists of three parts or divisions, in 

 the uppermost whereof all the aforementioned intestines are con- 

 tained, though they are not to be distinguished when the creature is 

 hungry ; but after it has eaten they become distended and opake, 

 and may very plainly be discovered. The other two divisions (the 

 lowermost of which I take to be fixed to the bell or outward case) 

 seem of no other service than to give the creature power of contrac- 

 tion and extension. 



" The arms seem not able, like those of the common polype, to con- 

 tract or shorten themselves; but instead thereof, when the animal 

 retires into his case, they are brought together in a close and curious 

 order, so as easily to be drawn in. Their general figure when ex- 

 panded is that of a cup, whose base and top are of an horse-shoe 

 form ; but they present sometimes a very different appearance, by 

 separating into four parts, and ranging themselves in such sort as to 

 represent four separate plumes of feathers. 



" I could never discover any eyes they have, and yet find some 

 reason to believe they see ; for on being set in the light of the sun, 

 or a candle, or brought out of the dark into daylight, though con- 

 tracted before and retired into the bell (as indeed they generally are 

 when in the dark), they constantly extend their arms for prey, and 

 show evident signs of being pleased. 



" Besides the particular and separate motion each of these crea- 

 tures is able to exert within its own case and independent of the rest, 

 the whole colony has together a power of altering the position, or 

 even of removing from one place to another the bell or common habi- 

 tation of them all. Hence this bell is seen sometimes standing per- 

 fectly upright, sometimes bending the upper part downwards. 



" It has been mentioned already, that between ten and fifteen of 

 these animals dwell together, as it were a little community, in one 

 bell-like case or common habitation : but their number increasing, 

 this bell may be observed to split gradually, beginning from about the 

 middle of the upper or anterior extremity, and proceeding down- 

 wards towards the bottom, till they separate at last entirely, and form 



