142 FOOD AND FEEDING. 



In the Aquarium, Antbea is ever a great favourite ; the singu- 

 larity of its form, the sprightliness of its movements, and the 

 delicate beauty of its colouring, all contributing to its popularity. 

 It has, moreover, this additional recommendation, in which it has ' 

 no competitor amongst our native Anemones, that its disc is 

 almost constantly open, and its beautiful pea-green tentacles, 

 tipped with pink, habitually displayed abroad. 



Notwithstanding the formidable weapons with which the 

 Anemones are armed, it Is by no means certain that they are such 

 rapacious and destructive creatures as they are commonly repre- 

 sented. It is hardly safe, perhaps, to judge of them by their 

 behaviour in the Aquarium; but there they exhibit, for the 

 most part, no disposition to capture living prey, and will even 

 allow themselves to be hustled and robbed with impunity. We 

 have repeatedly seen food taken, literally, out of their mouths by 

 little rascally crabs, scarcely larger even than split peas ; and 

 the only notice the Anemones have taken of the theft has been 

 to shrink down in the sand, or partially shut themselves up, out of 

 the way of their plunderers. 



On the shore we have often come across them quietly en- 

 gulfing dead and partially decomposed crabs, and we are strongly 

 inclined to suspect that a great part of their food, in a state of 

 nature, is of this description, that is to say, dead animal matter 

 casually floated within their reach. Nothing is more common 

 after returning from a day's hunting than to find that your 

 Anemones have thrown up the claw or shell of a crab in your 

 collecting can ; and from the circumstance that it is generally 

 portions of the animals only which are thus rejected, there is 

 reason to believe that it was in this divided state that it was 

 at first appropriated. 



Not that the Anemones are at all nice as to the size of the 

 mouthfuls they take, or in anywise disposed to forego a dainty 

 because it may require a little exertion to get possession of it. 

 On the contrary, there are few animals whose " maw '' is pro- 

 portionately more capacious, or who are less averse to testing the 

 capabilities of that part of their structure in accomplishing an 

 object on which they have set their hearts. One of Mr. Gosse's 

 correspondents mentions a crassicornis which bolted a sea-urchin, 

 spines and all, and auo'iier which discharged, as the remains of 

 his evening's meal, a whelk shell and a mass of nereids and 



