PICKED DOG-FISH. 



173 



Fragments of mussels are usually given to such 

 living marine objects, sea-anemones for instance, as 

 are fixed. The eagerness with which their tentacles 

 close upon them is very remarkable. A pair of wooden 



Fig. 116. 



Small-spotted Dog-fish (Scyllium canicula). 



tongs, made after the fashion of sugar-tongs, only 

 with very long arms, are employed to convey the 

 food. But it is astonishing how little food sea- 

 anemones, marine worms, and similar objects require, 

 and we are perfectly convinced there is more danger 

 from over-feeding them than in starving them. When 

 we consider their almost vegetative habits it is evident 

 there can be little loss of tissue from expenditure of 

 muscular force. Expenditure of nervous force there 

 cannot be, for these animals have no nervous systems, 

 or developed in the feeblest degree. The water 

 which continually bathes them contains invisible parts 



