8 FOOD. 



carried alive from remote parts of the country, as from the Channel Islands to Scotland, and from 

 Shetland, without the loss of a single example of any of the species. 



If, therefore, animals so large live for a protracted period in very limited supplies of salt 

 water without a trace of food, our wonder is diminished at the apparent paucity of nourishment 

 in the abysses of the Atlantic for the sustenance of the Eoraminifera and other minute organisms 

 mentioned by Dr. Carpenter, since, putting aside for the moment the dissolving jellies and ciliated 

 young of certain of their neighbours, they have free access to the trackless ocean and all its 

 contained organisms. 



Under certain irritants, as, for instance, great impurity of the water in the case of recently 

 captured animals, the common Linens gesserensis turns itself inside out, so that the inner surface 

 of the digestive chamber can be viewed without dissection. This also occasionally occurs on placing 

 it in alcohol. The extreme shrinking of Linens marinns on immersion in spirit is also some- 

 times due to a literal doubling of its body, one fold of which is thrust within the other, the outer 

 being in its normal position, but the inner having its alimentary surface external. Ceplwlothrix 

 linearis is killed by fresh water in a few minutes, the body being swollen by contraction and con- 

 torted. Amphiporus lactijloreus lives a little longer, though it never moves from the spot, and only 

 thrusts its snout hither and thither for a short time, and dilates its mouth. Lineus gesserensis 

 does not crawl after immersion, but lies helplessly on the bottom of the vessel, a swollen body- 

 wave passing rapidly from before backwards for some seconds, as if sickly, then all is still. In 

 most cases, as noticed by M. de Quatrefages, a copious exudation of mucus takes place, and 

 disintegration speedily ensues, the specimens becoming pulpy in a few hours. They are not less 

 hardy, however, than the higher Annelids under the same circumstances. 



POOD. 



The Nemerteans throughout are a carnivorous and predaceous race, either capturing living 

 prey or devouring suitable portions of dead animals. Sir J. Dalyell observed Lineus marinus 

 and his Gordius minor viridis feeding on fragments of mussel, the former also entering the tube of 

 Amphitrite (Sabella) to devour the tenant, and M. de Quatrefages (after Cuvier and others), in his 

 " Rambles," 1 narrates that the former species is nourished by sucking the Anomia, a feat, 

 however, that seems to me to be involved in obscurity. The erroneous interpretation of the 

 proboscis of the Enopla (which he took for an alimentary organ) of course exonerates M. de 

 Quatrefages in a manner from criticism in regard to the feeding of the animals. It may be 

 observed, however, that the thrusting out of the proboscis noticed by him in Folia mandilla 

 (Amphvporus lactijloreus) may have been due to other causes than hunger, and that the adherence of 

 the same organ to a Cyclops for a quarter of an hour may be otherwise explained than on the sup- 

 position of suction. Mr. Kingsley gives a very graphic but not very accurate (since he says the 

 proboscis assists in prehension) description of a specimen of the same species in the act of devouring 

 a fish. Lineus marinus, indeed, would appear to have a very indiscriminate appetite, for not only 

 does it devour its vertebrate and bristled superiors, but a specimen in the island of Herm swallowed 

 an example of Ascidia intestinalis about an inch long and half an inch broad, which had 

 been put into the same vessel. Mr. William Thompson, who did so much for the fauna of Ireland, 



1 Excellently translated by the accomplished Miss E. C. Otte. London, 1857. 



