COMMON OBJECTS OF THE SHORE. 327 



sist of a number of fine hairs (cilia), which are 

 placed side by side, like the barbs of a feather. 

 By means of rapid successions of vibratory action 

 caused by these ciliary rows, the animal is pro- 

 pelled through the water with great velocity, the 

 mouth in advance, perpetually contracting and 

 dilating, arid communicating with a two-lobed 

 stomach provided with a valve. A complete whirl- 

 pool is made around the beroe by the action of the 

 cilia, and the valve in the centre of the animal is 

 left open. This communicates, by another tube, 

 with the opposite pole of the globular animal. No 

 sooner does a small shrimp or other like creature 

 of the waters approach, than it is forced by the cur- 

 rent into the mouth. Its hooked claws and fringed 

 arms avail it nothing. The valve is closed upon 

 it, the nutritious part of the victim is dissolved, 

 and in due time the indigestible shell and the 

 eyes are thrown up again in the water. The un- 

 digested eyes of the shrimp, seen in the stomach, 

 have been sometimes mistaken for the organs of 

 the beroe. It is generally stated that the long 

 filaments at the side of the beroe, covered with 

 the tendrils,, are a means of securing prey. An 

 intelligent naturalist, a friend of the writer's, who 

 has made microscopic observations on this animal 

 taken from the shore of Dovor, is of opinion, that 

 these tentacles serve only as anchors to hold the 

 animal fast to any object to which it may choose to 

 attach itself. Some small shrimps were placed by 

 this gentleman in a vessel of water, with the 

 beroe ; one of these became accidentally entangled, 

 and was dragged, apparently without design on 

 the part of the beroe, into the receptacle of the 



