CIRRIPEDIA. 



235 



like apparatus will be protruded, and again with- 

 drawn. After a few seconds this movement will 

 be repeated, and again and again the feathery struc- 

 tures will be put forth, and retracted with such grace, 

 regularity, and precision, that 

 they present an appearance ex- 

 quisitely beautiful. These are 

 the arms or Cirri of the con- 

 tained animal. When fully 

 expanded, it will be seen that 

 their plumose and flexible stems 

 form a most wonderful pre- 

 hensile apparatus, admirably 

 adapted to entangle any nutri- 

 tious particles or minute living 

 creatures that may happen to 

 be present in the circumscribed 

 space over which this singular 

 casting-net is thrown, and drag 

 them down into the vicinity of 

 the mouth, where, being seized ( 

 by the jaws, they are crushed * 

 and appropriated as food. No 

 sense but that of touch is required for the success 

 of this singular mode of fishing, and the delicacy 

 with which the arms perceive the slightest contact 

 of foreign bodies, shows that they are eminently sen- 

 sitive. 



It is from these remarkably-constructed limbs or 

 Cirri that the Order derives its name. Although 

 in their adult state the Cirripedes are fixed and sta- 

 tionary, and enclosed in dense and strong shells, the 

 newly-hatched young present a very different shape, 

 and, strange to say, are furnished with limbs calcu- 

 lated to enable them to swim freely about, under the 

 appearance of Entomostracous Crustaceans ; and it is 

 only after undergoing several changes of form, that 

 they lose their wandering habits. The young Cirri- 

 pedes, on emerging from the eggs, are very different 

 in structure from their parents. They possess loco- 



FlG. 1?9. CIRRI OF BARNACLE. 



