220 MARVELS OF THE ANIMAL WORLD 



seas, and obtain their food by patiently boring 

 through the shells of other molluscs and feeding 

 upon their flesh and juices, have numerous poison 

 glands opening out of each of the barbed teeth with 

 which their rasping organs are armed. 



As many of us know from experience, jelly-fish 

 are able to sting and give rise to a sensation which 

 may be likened unto the stinging of a nettle ; while 

 the anemones, especially those which are brightly 

 coloured, possess a number of stinging cells, as also 

 do the coral polyps. Darwin writes in reference to 

 the latter : — •' The stinging property seems to vary in 

 different specimens : when a piece was pressed or 

 rubbed on the tender skin of the face or arm, a 

 pricking sensation was usually caused, which came 

 on after an interval of a second, and lasted only for 

 a few minutes. One day, however, by merely 

 touching my face with one of the branches, pain 

 was instantaneously caused ; it increased as usual 

 after a few seconds, and remaining sharp for some 

 minutes was preceptible for half an hour afterwards. 

 The sensation was as bad as that from a nettle. . . . 

 Little red spots were produced on the tender skin 

 of the arm, which appeared as if they would have 

 formed watery pustules, but did not.' 



The spiders are other creatures which secrete a 

 poisonous fluid, and although in the majority of 

 cases their venom is not sufficiently powerful to 

 prove injurious to mankind, yet notable exceptions 

 are to be found in the enormous bird-eating spiders, 

 some of which are able to span an object as large as 

 an average -sized saucer with their outstretched 



