The Wit of the Wild 



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All are less conspicuous than the physalia, be- 

 cause more transparent and colorless, but they 

 are more fairy-like in delicacy. Instead of a 

 big crested float they have one or more small 

 floats, made buoyant in some cases by a filling 

 of an oily substance. An exquisite example is 

 Nanomia. Another is Vellela, which lifts from 

 its purplish, raft-like disk a triangular sail by 

 which to trim its course to the breeze. 



Of the latter, also a siphonophore, Prof. A. 

 G. Mayer gives the following description in his 

 valuable " Seashore Life " : 



" Vellela mutica is an exquisite creature rarely 

 seen along our [northern] coasts, but it occurs 

 in great swarms in the tropical Atlantic. The 

 body is an oblong disk about four inches long, 

 and deep blue-green in color. The upper side 

 of the disk is occupied by the chambered, gas- 

 filled float, which is chitinous and gives rise to 

 a sail-like crest. On the under side of the disk 

 we find a large central feeding-mouth sur- 

 rounded on all sides by numerous little mouths 

 and reproductive polypites. Near the outer 

 edge of the under side of the disk there is a 

 ^ 80 So* 



