NUDIBRANCHS. 



39 



grotesque, that a description would be useless 

 except it were accompanied by a drawing. 



As to the colouring of these creatures, there is 

 hardly a tint, from blackish grey to the most 

 brilliant carmine, that is not found in some 

 member of this strange family. They all belong 

 to that division of the molluscs that go by the 

 name of Gasteropoda, because the lower surface 

 of the body forms the foot by which they move 

 from place to place. By the aid of this foot they 

 often float on the surface of the water, as has been 

 already recorded of other molluscs. This action, 

 however, has been well described, as creeping on 

 the superincumbent stratum of air. Many species 

 of the genera Doris and ,Eolis, together with 

 others, may be found, at low water, clinging to 

 the rocks and stones. They will hardly be 

 recognised as Nudibranchs at a hasty glance, for 

 they subside into shapeless gelatinous knobs as 

 soon as the waves leave them, and do not resume 

 their expanded form until the surging sea returns. 



The Nudibranchs, although most lovely 

 creatures, are very unsafe inhabitants of an 

 aquarium, in spite of their delicate and dainty 

 looks; and a wolf would be about as appropriate 

 an inmate of a sheepfold, as a Nudibranch of 

 an aquarium where sea-anemones live, Even 



