BY THE SEASIDE— ANIMAL LIFE 



honeycomb, for the whole surface on both sides is 

 covered over with a multitude of very small holes, 

 being no larger than so many holes made with a 

 pin, and ranged in the neatest and most delicate 

 order imaginable, they being placed in the manner 

 of a quincunx, or very much like the rows of eyes 

 of a fly, the rows or orders being very regular 

 which way soever they are observed. These little 

 holes, which to the eye look round, when magnified, 

 appear very regularly shaped holes, representing 

 almost the shape of a round-toed shoe, the hinder 

 part of each being, as it were, turned in, or covered 

 by the toe of the next below it. These holes seemed 

 walled about with very thin and transparent sub- 

 stance, looking of a pale straw colour, from the 

 edge of which, against the middle of each hole, were 

 sprouted out four small, transparent, straw-coloured 

 thorns, which seemed to protect and cover those 

 cavities." 



As a well-known author has remarked : " This 

 is really a wonderfully faithful description of the 

 common sea-mat, and one cannot help picturing 

 the surprise and delight of old author Hooke, could 

 he have seen a portion of a living colony under a 

 modern microscope." 



One of our finds may be the " Bird's head.". It is 

 a branched form, quite unlike the sea-mat but it is of 

 even greater interest. Under the microscope, we 

 shall see the many waving tentacles, but another 

 feature is sure to attract our attention, a feature 

 which is responsible for the popular name of the 



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