THE FRESH-WATER MUSSEL. 



101 



has no tentacles, or threads, to lasso its food like the 

 hydra ; but its mouth is edged with cilia, which make 

 the water move inward. This water is full of live lit- 

 tle animals, which make delicious " eatings " for a hun- 

 gry mussel. If you pass a bristle through the mouth, 

 it will go upward toward the dorsal edge of the mussel, 

 through a tube which opens into a squarish bag (Fig. 

 97). The tube is called the (esophagus, or meat-pipe ; 

 it is sometimes called the gullet (Fig. 97). You have 



Fig. 97. 



Large Intestine, Kectitm, pass- 

 ing through the Heart. 



Mouth. 



Anus. 



one just behind your windpipe, and it leads from your 

 mouth to your stomach ; but the mussel does not need 



