32 Dr. C. Collingwood 07i Gigantic Sea- Anemones. 



orange, and the bodj vertically banded with broad rings of 

 opaque white and orange alternately, three bands of each. As 

 the fish remained stationary, and did not appear to be alarmed 

 at my movements, I made ineffectual attempts to catch him ; 

 he always eluded my efforts, not darting away, however, as 

 I expected he would, but always returning to the same spot. 

 Wandering about in search of shells and animals, I returned 

 from time to time to the great Anemone, and each time 

 I found the fish there, in spite of all my disturbance of it. 

 This singular persistence of the fish in keeping to the same 

 spot, and to the close vicinity of the great Anemone, aroused 

 in me strong suspicions of the existence of some connexion 

 between them. 



These suspicions were subsequently verified ; for on the 

 reefs of Pulo Pappan, near the island of Labuan, I met with 

 more than one specimen of this gigantic Actinia, and the fish, 

 so unmistakeable in its apj)earance when once seen, again in 

 its neighbourhood. Raking about with a stick in the body of 

 the Anemone, I by degrees dislodged six fishes of the same 

 species, and of various sizes, from the cavity of the zoophyte ; 

 and this time, being provided with a hand net, I had no diffi- 

 culty in capturing them all. Thus the connexion existing 

 between the fish and the Anemone was demonstrated, though 

 what is the nature and object of that connexion remains to be 

 proved. 



There are at least two species of these Anemone-inhabiting 

 fish ; and a second species of the same genus differs from that 

 just described in having black and cream-coloured vertical 

 bands, instead of orange and white. Such a fish I have seen, 

 evidently closely related to the first described, in the pos- 

 session of Mr. Hugh Low, of Labuan, who in times past had 

 made many excursions to the reefs, and had become acquainted 

 with this fact. Mr. Low had it then living in a tub which 

 did duty as an aquarium, having obtained it some months 

 before from the body of what was probably a second species of 

 fish-sheltering Anemone. The fish was remarkably lively 

 and knowing, and lived in good health in the tub for several 

 months — a proof that the connexion between these animals, 

 whatever its nature, is not absolutely essential, for the fish at 

 least. 



It has long been known that there is a HoJotlmria [H. ana- 

 nas) which harbom-s a parasitic fish. The Holothuria and its 

 fish are figured in the ' Voyage of the Astrolabe ; ' and such a 

 Holothuria inhabits the reefs about Labuan ; but its fish bears 

 no resemblance to those I have described, not indeed belong- 

 ing to the same piscine family. 



