If tlie suifaee of the bodj' of this little creature be exiimiiied 

 with a microscope, it will be found studded with a iiuuibir of 

 warts, as also the arms, especially when they are contracted -. 

 and these tubercles, as we shall presently see, answer a very iin. 

 portant purpose. 



If we examine their way of living, we shall find these insects 

 chiefly subsisting upon others, much less than themselves, pai-- 

 ticularly a kind of millepedes that live in the water, and a very 

 small red worm, which they seize with great avidity. In sliort, 

 no insect whatsoever, less than themselves, seems to come amiss 

 to them ; their arms, as was said before, serve them as a net 

 would a fisherman, or perhaps, more exactly speaking, as a lime- 

 twig does a fowler. 



Wherever their prey is perceived, which the animal effects by 

 its feeling, it is sufficient to touch the object it would seize upon, 

 and it is fastened without a power of escaping. The instan*" 

 one of this insect's long arms is laid upon a millepede, the little 

 insect sticks without a possibility of retreating. The greater 

 the distance at which it is touched, the greater is the ease with 

 which the polypus brings the prey to its mouth. If the little 

 object be near, though irretrievably caught, it is not without 

 great difficulty that it can be brought to the mouth to be swal- 

 lowed. V/hen the polypus is unsupplied with prey, it testifies 

 its hunger by opening its mouth ; the aperture, however, is so 

 small that it cannot be easily perceived ; but when, with any of 

 its long arms, it has seized upon its prey, it then opens the 

 mouth distinctly enough, and this opening is always in propor- 

 tion to the size of the animal which it would swallow ; the lips 

 dilate insensibly by small degrees, and adjust themselves pre- 

 cisely to the figure of their prey. Mr Trembley, who took a 

 pleasure in feeding this useless brood, found that they could de- 

 vour aliments of every kind, fish and flesh, as well as insects ; 

 but he owns they did not thrive so well upon beef and veal, as 

 upon the little worms of their own providing. When he gave 

 one of these famished reptiles any substance which was impro- 

 per to serve for aliment, at first it seized the prey with avidity, 

 but after keeping it sometime entangled near the mouth, it dropt 

 it again with distinguishing nicety. 



When several polypi happen to fall upon the same worm, they 

 dispute their common prey with each other. T\\<j of them are 



IV. 2 a 



