IN FEATHERS AXD FUR, 283 
about them, says that when the time comes for the little one to set 
up an independent life, the child and the mother often combine to 
separate themselves, fairly pulling themselves apart. 
Sometimes, too, the little one will have its own- little buds 
growing up to be Polyps, before it leaves its mother. 
All these things so surprised the discoverer, that he began to 
think perhaps the creature was a plant, so he made some more 
experiments. He cut one of them up into five or six parts, and 
watched them. In a few days, every part was a complete animal. 
He sometimes cut one in two, so that the end of the stomach was 
cut off. Did that disturb the Hydra? by no means ! it was just as 
greedy of food, hunted just as actively for something to eat, and 
stuffed it as complacently as ever into its mouth — though it at 
once dropped out the other end. 
I think he's about the coolest individual I ever read of. 
