42 OCEAN LIFE. 



taceau, with a broad carapace, a single eye, two pairs of antennae, 

 three pairs of jointed, branched, and well-bristled legs, and a 

 forked tail. It casts off its skin twice, undergoing, especially at 

 the second month, a considerable change of figure. At the third 

 month it has assumed almost the form of a Cypris or Cythere, 

 being inclosed in a bivalve shell, in which the front of the head 

 with the antennae is greatly developed, equalling in bulk all the 

 rest of the body. The single eye has become two, which are 

 very large, and attached to the outer arms of two bent processes 

 like the letters U U, which are seen within the thorax. 



"In this stage the little animal searches about for some suitable 

 spot for permanent residence; a ship's bottom, a piece of floating 

 timber, the back of a whale or turtle, or the solid rock. When 

 its selection is made, the two antennae, which project from the 

 shell, pour out a glutinous gum or cement, which hardens in 

 water, and firmly attaches them. Henceforth, the animal is a 

 fixture, glued by the front of its head to its support. Another 

 moult now takes place ; the bivalve shell is thrown off, with the 

 great eyes, and their U-like processes, and the little Cirriped is 

 seen in its true form. It is now in effect a Stomapod Crustacean, 

 attached by its antennae, the head greatly lengthened (in Lepas, 

 &c.), the carapace composed of several pieces (valves), the legs 

 modified into cirri, and made to execute their grasping movements 

 backwards instead of forwards, and the whole abdomen obliter- 

 ated, or reduced to an inconspicuous rudiment. 



"The sessile or stalkless Barnacles or Acorn-shells (Ballanidae), 

 appear to differ much in the formation of their shells from the 

 Lepadidae, (stalked,) but the diversity is produced by modification 

 of the same essential valves. 



" The food devoured by the Cirrhopoda would seem to consist 

 of various minute animals, such as small Mollusks and micro- 

 scopic Crustacea, caught in the water around them by a mechan- 

 ism at once simple and elegant. Any one who watches the 

 movements of a living Cirrhopod will perceive that its arms, with 

 their appended cirrhi, are in perpetual movement, being alter- 

 nately thrown out and retracted with great rapidity ; and that, 

 when fully expanded, the plumose and flexible stems form an ex- 

 quisitely beautiful apparatus, admirably adapted to entangle 



