THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



103 



short stem lianging from the centre; the 

 food is taken in and digested in a large 

 stomach which extends into four pouches, 

 and from these, canals convey the digest- 

 ed food over the body. The canals run 

 into a circular canal going around the 

 edge of the "umbrella," and all these 

 are usually quite visible through the 

 transparent animal. 



Looking down on the top of a jelly- 

 fish we may often see four reddisli pur- 

 ple bodies inside the jelly, in shape 

 something like a Maltese cross. These 

 are reproductive organs, and the de- 

 velopment of the young jelly-fish is very 

 curious. The egg when discharged de- 

 velops into a little free-swimming crea- 

 ture, but this soon attaches itself to 

 some projection, loses its swimming 

 powers, and becomes fixed. Theij it 

 proceeds to grow a number of buds, 

 which look something like a pile of tiny 

 soup plates one above the other. These 

 buds eventually break off from one an- 

 other and each separate Imd becomes a 

 new jelly-fish. Thus each jelly-fish is 

 really the grandchild of the jelly-fish 

 which produced it, the parent being the 

 intermediate creature which developed 

 the bud. 



THK PORTUGUESE :MAX-0F-WAR. 



Anotlier creature often washed up on 

 the sand is the blue-bottle or Portu- 

 guese Man-of-war. This also is in the 

 same class as the jelly-fish, though in a 

 different order. They are very pi'ettj', 

 but, as ])athers know, very dangerous, 

 for their sting is truly dreadful. The 

 deep blue air bladder, rounded at one 

 end and slightly pointed at the other is, 

 in some species, surmounted by a small 

 crest, and has a tiny opening at each 

 end, controlled by a set of muscles. The 

 blue-bottle is not really one animal, but 

 is a whole colony of animals. Under the 

 floating bladder which is filled with air 

 are the long tentacles, armed with ter- 

 rible poison darts, which float out far 

 around the blue-bottle; but besides these 

 there is a whole host of shorter struc- 

 tures, the individuals of the colony. 

 These, strange to say, are not all alike. 

 The blue-bottle colony has only one sto- 

 mach common to all the members, and 



some of these individuals are engaged 

 only in supplying that stomach. They 

 have mouths and absorb food for the 

 benefit of the whole colony, but they do 

 nothing else. Others are gifted with 

 powers of reproduction, and provide 

 new colonies, but they do not feed them- 

 selves; they simply make use of the com- 

 ]non food absorbed into the whole system 

 by their brothers. 



SEA-HORSES. 



Washed up on the beach after a 

 heavy gale we may often find the curi- 

 ous sea-horse. There can be no doubt 

 as to why it is called "sea-horse," for its 

 head bears a most ridiculous resemblance 

 to a horse's head. A curious feature of 

 its body is that the latter is composed 

 of a series of rings, something after the 

 manner of a caterpillar. These rings 

 extend right down to the tail, and this 

 organ is extremely prehensile. The fish 



Seahorse — Hippocampus abdominalis. 



A species occurring in shallow water off 



the coast of New South Wales. 



