FREE MESSMATES. 5 



without any regard for the hospitality which he receives, 

 he seizes on his portion of all that enters. The Fier- 

 asfer contrives to cause himself to he served hy a 

 neighbour better provided than himself with the means 

 of fishing. 



Dr. Greef, at present Professor at Marhourg, found 

 at Madeira a holothuria of a foot in length, in which a 

 vigorous Fierasfer lived in peace. Quoy and Gaimard, 

 in the account of their voyage round the world, have 

 remarked long since, that the Fierasfer hornei is found 

 in the Stichopus tuherculosus. 



The holothurise seem to exist under very advan- 

 tageous conditions in this respect, since we see Fier- 

 asfers, which are themselves tolerable gluttons, accom- 

 panied by Palaamons and Pinnotheres in the same 

 animal. Professor C. Semper has seen holothurise 

 in the Philippine Islands which bore a considerable 

 resemblance, in this respect, to an hotel with its 

 table d'hote. 



These singular fishes have been long noticed, but it 

 was not till recently that their presence in a host so low 

 in the scale as a holothurian could be explained. 



But if naturalists are agreed as to the bond which 

 unites these fishes to the holothuriaB, they do not agree 

 as to the organs which they inhabit in their living hotel. 

 Do they lodge in the digestive cavity of the holothurise, 

 or do they inhabit the arborescent respiratory processes 

 which open at the posterior extremity of the body ? 

 Until recently it was thought that it was in their 

 stomach, but a doubt has arisen. Professor Semper, 

 who has studied these animals with particular care 

 at the Philippine Islands, had the curiosity to open 



