158 FISHIXG-NET OF BALANUS. 



for the undefended hand as a wall tipped with 

 broken bottles. 



While they left in the open air, there is 

 nothing attractive in the balani, which seem rather 

 to disfigure the rock than to improve its appear- 

 ance. But when the sea returns and brings back 

 the welcome supply of nourishment, these dull^ 

 lifeless objects suddenly start into activity, and 

 begin to fish as industriously as if they knew 

 that they had only a limited time for eating, and 

 must, during that time, procure a sufficiency of 

 food to employ their digestive organs while the 

 tide is out. The manner in which the Cirrhopoda 

 fish is very remarkable. Some animals, like the 

 sea-anemones, hang out a net and await the 

 approach of prey, who unwarity come within the 

 scope of their power, and so rush to their own 

 destruction. Other creatures hang out fishing 

 lines, like the common fresh-water Hydra, or the 

 beautiful marine Beroe, which will be described 

 on a future page. Others, again, chase their prey 

 through the water, and capture it by virtue of 

 superior swiftness or cunning. But neither of 

 these modes is employed by the balaiius, which 

 is furnished with a veritable casting-net, which 

 it ever and anon throws expanded into the water, 

 and then retracts when closed. The action of a 



