228 BY THE DEEP SEA. 



spreading bunches. The two erect tentacles behind the long 

 pointed pair, if examined with a lens, will be found to be 

 beautifully ornamented by a series of annular plates. It may 

 be sought among the rocks at low-water, feeding chiefly on 

 the sertularian zoophytes. It is an active species, gliding over 

 the rocks, or swimming at the surface with its back downwards. 

 They are constantly waving their tentacles and moving their 

 papillae, from which they exude a milky fluid when irritated, 

 and even throw them off, as a crab " shoots " his lesser limbs 



CROWNED EOLIS. 



under similar circumstances. If kept in an aquarium without 

 suitable food, they become cannibals. Eolis papillosa is a 

 similar species, the upper surface almost completely covered 

 with papillae. It will be found under stones at low-water, feed- 

 ing on Botrylli and other ascidians. If on a white species, 

 it will be wholly white, for like Lamellaria and Doris, it goes 

 in for protective colouring. Introduce a specimen from a white 

 ascidian into a vessel containing, say, a crimson or brown 

 Beadlet Anemone, and after a few hours you will find the 

 Anemone has disappeared, whilst the Eolis has changed to 

 the colour that the Beadlet was of. The papillae of the Eolis 

 are really continuations of its digestive apparatus, and by this 

 simple arrangement a protective harmony is set up as often 



