HOUSES OF FEEBLE FOLK 113 



species), a creature near akin to the " dead-men's 

 fingers" of British seas. It looks Hke a small ''run- 

 to-seed" cauliflower, of which the individual florets 

 are of a bright pink colour. Hidden among its 

 branches we found no less than four small species of 

 crustaceans (an AlphetLs, a Galathea, a Porcellana, 

 and a rare little spider-crab known as Hoplophrys 

 oatesi), all of which, in life, are greyish-white with 

 bright pink spots, so that they are perfectly invisible 

 so long as they remain quiet in their living refuge. 

 Another zoophyte that we often dredged was Ptei^oe- 

 ides elegans (or a species intimately close to it), one 

 of the sea-pens, of a grey colour profusely marked 

 with little, blackish rings. In its leaves three small 

 species of crustaceans are accustomed to hide, all of 

 whom are coloured and spotted exactly like the living 

 citadel in which they dwell. I have already mentioned 

 the sea-lily {Actinometra) striped in alternate bands 

 of yellow and purple, on whose fronds similarly- 

 striped crustaceans live without fear of detection : 

 here we found the same sea-lily giving secure shelter 

 to sea-worms, banded yellow and purple like itself. 



On this part of the coast I made my first acquaint- 

 ance, under very painful circumstances, with a cat-fish 

 named Plotosus arab, which is found in all Oriental 

 waters from the Red Sea to Polynesia. It is, when 

 young, of a rich purple-brown colour, with two bright 



yellow bands running along each side of the body, 



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