The Greenbottles 



ject a little way outside and go in turn by 

 turn. Are we to look upon these as mandi- 

 bles? Not at all, for, instead of having their 

 points facing each other, as would be required 

 in a real mandibular apparatus, the two hooks 

 work in parallel directions and never meet. 

 What they are is ambulatory organs, grapnels 

 assisting locomotion, which give a purchase 

 on the plane and enable the animal to advance 

 by means of repeated contractions. The mag- 

 got walks with the aid of what a superficial 

 examination would pronounce to be a machine 

 for eating. It carries in its gullet the equi- 

 valent of the climber's alpenstock. 



Let us hold it, on a piece of flesh, under 

 the lens. We shall see it walking about, rais- 

 ing and lowering its head and, each time, 

 stabbing the meat with its pair of hooks. 

 When stationary, with its crupper at rest, it 

 explores space with a continual bending of its 

 fore-part; its pointed head pokes about, jabs 

 forward, goes back again, producing and 

 withdrawing its black mechanism. There is 

 a perpetual piston-play. Well, look as care- 

 fully and conscientiously as I please, I do not 

 once see the weapons of the mouth tackle a 

 particle of flesh that is torn away and swal- 

 lowed. The hooks come down upon the meat 



225 



