76 THE VITAL FUNCTIONS. 



the vermiform larva of a Tipula, which it has 

 encircled with its tentacula, to which it has 



applied its expanded mouth, and of which it is 

 absorbing the juice, before swallowing it. Fig. 

 243 shows the same animal after it has suc- 

 ceeded, though not without a severe contest, in 

 swallowing a minnow, or other small fish, the 

 form of which is still visible through the trans- 

 parent sides of the body, which are stretched to 

 the utmost. It occasionally happens, when two 

 of these animals have both seized the same object 

 by its different ends, that a struggle between 

 them ensues, and that the strongest, having ob- 

 tained the victory, swallows at a single gulp, not 

 only the object of contention, but its antagonist 

 also. This scene is represented in Fig. 244, 

 where the tail of the hydra, of which the body 

 has been swallowed by the victor, is seen pro- 

 truding from the mouth of the latter. It soon, 

 however, extricates itself from this situation, 



