70 Proceedings of the 



retracted within its cell at the approach of danger. Blainville 

 regarded the tentacles as instruments for the capture of prey. 

 Patterson has contested this opinion, and believes that they 

 cannot be made to approach the mouth, as they are situated at 

 the opposite extremity of the body. Dr Carpenter regards 

 them as locomotive organs ; but it is difficult to imagine how 

 they can be used for that purpose. I had frequent opportuni- 

 ties of seeing these animals taking their prey at Morecambe 

 Bay by the aid of their tentacles, and was delighted with the 

 address they displayed in using these seemingly unmanageable 

 appendages. The food of Cydippe was easily ascertained, as 

 the stomachs of many of the specimens taken were packed 

 with minute Crustacea. To ascertain how the latter were 

 captured, I threw one of them into a jar in which was a 

 Cydippe which had evidently not dined that day. It was in- 

 stantly caught by one of the tentacles. The Acaleph at once 

 became very animated, and performed a series of somersaults 

 until it had succeeded in hitching the tentacle which held its 

 prey across the widely-gaping mouth as over a pulley. The 

 tentacle was then contracted by successive jerks, until the 

 morsel was hauled up to and dropped into the stomach. This 

 experiment was frequently repeated, with precisely the same 

 results, by myself and friends, with the same and other spe- 

 cies of Cydippe. 



VI. On Two new Actinias from Arran. By T. Strethii/l Wright, 

 M.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh. 

 (Plate VI.) 



(1.) Actinia ornata. — Body cylindrical, smooth, orange-brown, 

 spotted with white ; tentacles quinquiserial, four inner rows 

 grayish-white banded with purple-brovjn, outer row half the 

 length of inner rows, orange tipped with gray. 



I found this very showy Actinia in September last on the 

 shore below South Corrigills, Isle of Arran. It inhabited 

 small deep basins in the rock, situated nearly at high-water 

 mark, and densely filled with a variety of algae. When the algae 



