CURIOUS MESSMATES 83 



mackerel, and another to the young of whiting. 

 It is not always, however, that the association 

 between fish and jelly-fish is of an amicable nature, 

 for certain kinds of the former, although resorting 

 to the practice of sheltering beneath the umbrella- 

 like form of the latter, actually feed upon the 

 tentacles of their hosts, a deed which they can 

 accomplish with impunity, as they are immune from 

 any evil effects arising from the stinging powers 

 of their victims. Small crustaceans will also 

 attach themselves to jelly-fish ; and we are told 

 that a species of eel takes up its abode in the 

 branchial sac of the angler-fish, and that the 

 Brazilian cat-fish shelters certain other small fish 

 within its mouth. 



An anemone, known as Palytha fatua, is remark- 

 able for the fact that it is always found attached 

 to the Japanese glass-sponge (Hyalonema), in which 

 situation it patiently waits for its food to drift 

 towards it ; while another one, called Sagartia 

 parasitica, is rarely to be met with unless it be 

 fixed to the shell of a hermit-crab. It has also 

 been recorded that two different kinds of crabs, 

 both of which are found in Mauritius, are in the 

 habit of carrying about an anemone on each of 

 their large pincer-like claws. 



The hermit-crab, although of a very quarrelsome 

 disposition towards its own kindred, is, nevertheless, 

 quite sociably inclined towards many other creatures, 

 for beyond affording a lodging upon the outside of 

 its shell to an anemone, it will even extend its good 

 nature so far as to house within its shell a worm- 



