A Tiny Man-o'-War 



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from them burst hundreds of exquisitely sharp, 

 thread-like and barbed darts (until then hidden 

 in pockets opened by a touch), which penetrate 

 the victim's flesh and carry into it a fiery poison 

 (perhaps formic acid) that benumbs the nerves 

 and paralyzes effort. 



Then the tentacles begin to contract, and 

 slowly draw the captive up into the living 

 thicket beneath the float, where it comes into 

 contact with shorter and broader tentacles bear- 

 ing flask-shaped bodies, whese pores are filled 

 with the equivalent of gastric juice. I have 

 seen a physalia kill and lift to its " mouths " a 

 fish longer than its own float. 



These feeding organs gradually absorb and 

 digest the nutritive part of the prey and send it 

 circulating, in the place of blood, throughout 

 the space between the walls of the float and up 

 and down the interior of every pendent organ, 

 and so the whole is nourished impartially. 

 There are large and small feeders, each with 

 highly colored tentacles of its own, and some of 

 them, according to Prof. Alexander Agassiz, 

 seem also to perform a respiratory function. 

 *> 77 j 



