HYDEOZOA. 



45 



crest, now in the deep hollow, in spite of wind and wave. Often 

 while passing just under the lee of the vessel, the sudden lull made by 



the interposition of so great a body 

 between it and the wind, will cause 

 it for a moment to lie flat on the 

 water ; but it instantly resumes its 

 upright position. When examined 

 closely, the animal is seen to con- 

 sist of an oblong transparent bladder, 

 surmounted by a kind of crumpled 

 crest of a delicate pink colour. 

 From one end of the bottom of this 

 bladder proceeds a large bunch of 

 appendages of various shapes, which 

 trail in the surrounding water. 

 These hanging tentacles are of a 

 very beautiful colour, and possess 

 the power of stinging in a formidable 

 degree. MB. GOSSE. 



The long cables, or tentacula, 

 can be thrown out to a great dis- 

 tance, to twelve or even eighteen 

 feet, and by the aid of these the 

 Physalise are able to capture any 

 small fishes that may come in their 

 reach ; and which, by the wonder- 

 ful retractile power of these appen- 

 dages, are speedily conveyed to the 

 short suckers or mouths, whereby 



the prey is devoured. On placing 

 FIG. 29.-PHTSALIS. the physalia ^ a tub of watef wit g 



some little fishes, they were immediately entangled in its grasp, 

 and the tubes were soon seen to be filled with portions of the fish 

 sucked into their interior It is a very interesting sight to watch 

 one of these animals thus placed in a large tub of water, sometimes 

 coiling up its tentacles to within half an inch of their bladder-like 

 support, and then darting them out with surprising velocity to the 

 distance of several feet, entwining and benumbing their prey, and 

 then dragging it towards their polype-like mouths. DK. BENNETT. 



And now, reverting to the animals described in 

 the few last pages, so diverse in their forms, and in 

 their attributes, the reader perhaps begins to wonder 

 what relationship exists among them that they 

 should thus be classified as members of the same 

 great family ; and this we must next proceed to 

 explain. 



Any one who will examine, with a little industry, 

 the surface of the stones, or shells, or rocks, upon the 

 shore, just at the lowest point of the ebb-tide, will 

 probably observe, clinging to their surface, numerous 



