ZOOPHYTES, 259 



agree in having singular moveable organs (like 

 those of Flustra avicularia, found in the European 

 seas) attached to their cells. The organ, in the 

 greater number of cases, very closely resembles 

 the head of a vulture ; but the lower mandible can 

 be opened much wider than in a real bird's beak. 

 The head itself possesses considerable powers of 

 movement, by means of a short neck. In one 

 zoophyte the head itself was fixed, but the lower 

 jaw free : in another it was replaced by a triangu- 

 lar hood, with a beautifully-fitted trapdoor, which 

 evidently answered to the lower mandible. In the 

 greater number of species, each cell was provided 

 with one head, but in others each cell had two. 



The young cells at the end of the branches of 

 these corallines contain quite immature polypi, yet 

 the vulture-heads attached to them, though small, 

 are in every respect perfect. When the polypus 

 Avas removed by a needle from any of the cells, 

 these organs did not appear in the least affected. 

 When one of the vulture-like heads was cut off 

 from a cell, the lower mandible retained its power 

 of opening and closing. Perhaps the most singular 

 part of their structure is, that when there were 

 more than two rows of cells on a branch, the cen- 

 ti'al cells were furnished with these appendages, 

 of only one fourth the size of the outside ones. 

 Their movements varied according to the species ; 

 but in some I never saw the least motion ; while 

 others, with the lower mandible generally wide 

 open, oscillated backwards and forwards at the 

 rate of about five seconds each turn ; others moved 

 rapidly and by starts. When touched with a nee- 

 dle, the beak generally seized the point so firmly 

 that die whole branch might be shaken. 



These bodies have no relation whatever with 

 the production of the eggs or gemmules, as they 



