21 
TAB. LXXI. 
FLUSTRA avicularis. 
Gen. Char. Animal a polype proceeding from 
porous cells. Stem fixed, foliaceous, membra- 
naceous, consisting of numerous rows of cells 
united together, and woven like a mat. 
Spec. Char. Cells on one side, armed with branched 
spines : branches fasciculate, palmate, dichotomous, 
truncate, smooth on one side, with opaque beaked 
capsules near the edge formed like a parrot’s head. 
I have been shown this curious Zoophite by my friend 
the Rev. P. Keith, F.L.S., who found it at Seaford bay, 
Sussex, in March 1806, in the most perfect state, forming 
altogether a spherical mass. I consider it as a very extra- 
ordinary production, exhibiting at the same time two di- 
stinct animal appearances ; one representing an amphitrite, 
the other a living form, like a bird’s head, included in the 
same nest or habitation. . Mr. Ellis had the gratification of 
seeing these birds’ heads move up and down, and the beaks 
open; probably the lower mandible move down and up 
again. Whether his is the same species, may admit of a 
doubt, as ours has from two to five appendages at each 
cell ; he regularly represents two. The cells are either 
covered with a convex operculum, or protrude the am- 
phitrite. The head-like animal is attached to the nerves, 
near the edges. The habitation is like that of other Flustrac 
