108 GLAUCUS; OR, 



plates. With a lens I saw tlie small moutli slowly 

 open, and move over to that side, the lips gaping 

 unsymmetrically, while with a movement as imper- 

 ceptible as that of the hour hand of a watch, the tiny 

 prey was carried along between the plates to the 

 corner of the mouth. The mouth, however, moved 

 most, and at length reached the edges of the plates, 

 gradually closed upon the insect, and then returned 

 to its usual place in the centre." 



Mr. Gosse next tried the fairy of the walking 

 mouth with a house-fly, who escaped only by hard 

 fighting ; and at last the gentle creature, after swal- 

 lowing and disgorging various large pieces of shell- 

 fish, found viands to its taste in " the lean of cooked 

 meat, and portions of earthworms," filling up the 

 intervals by a perpetual desert of microscopic animal- 

 cules, whirled into that lovely avernus, its mouth, by 

 the currents of the delicate cilise which clothe every 

 tentacle. The fact is, that the Madrepore, like those 

 glorious sea-anemones whose living flowers stud 

 every pool, is by profession a scavenger, and a 

 feeder on carrion ; and being as useful as he is 



