Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

have been made a speciality at the Crystal Palace, where the largest number of varieties may be seen alive. Of all these marine worms, however, certainly none is so attractive and so much sought after as the "sea-mouse" (Aphrodita aculeata). Its metallic lustre of green, blue, and yellow hairs, shining like those of the peacock's tail, would make it attractive by whatsoever name it might be called. Few people can

Fig. 219.

Nereis.

believe that this beautiful and not uncommon creature is a marine worm. Its back is covered with plates, underneath which are the breathing organs or gills. The plates are covered with the iridescent bristles, which, although beautiful even when the Aphrodita is cast up as a dead object at high water, are exceedingly lovely when it is seen alive

[ocr errors]

and healthy in an aquarium. There can be no wonder, therefore, that it is sought after, and consequently exhibited in our public aquaria. Others of the non-tubed worms, the Nereis, for example, although not so brilliantly coloured, are very graceful and pretty marine creatures. The habits of some of the prettiest, however, belie their lovely appearance; for they are not unfrequently those of the well-clad stage ruffian who struts about in garments which have been obtained by means of murder and robbery. Not a few of the "errant," or wandering worms, live by stealthily preying upon objects actually more highly organised than themselves.

[blocks in formation]

SEA-ANEMONES AND OTHER ZOOPHYTES, ETC.,
OF MARINE AQUARIA.

So

EVEN before the days of large public aquaria, Gosse, Lankester, and others had taught us the ease with which those charming, flower-like objects called “seaanemones" could be kept alive in vessels of sea water. No flowers in full bloom exceed them in colour or graceful shape, whilst in them there is superadded the extra interest which life gives to any object. These sea-anemones (Actinia) have been studied and observed more than any other group of marine animals. They are easy to keep alive, with certain necessary precautions, but require some little feeding. flower-like are they that even insects are occasionally deceived by their floral appearance. Sir John Lubbock and others have recently shown how wonderfully co-related flowers and insects are; and if it had been a less trustworthy observer than the late Jonathan Couch who related the following, it Iwould have been difficult to believe that an insect so intelligent as a bee could make so gross a mistake as to take a sea-anemone for an open flower! Mr. Couch states that he saw an expanded "crass

U

or "dahlia" wartlet anemone (Tealia crassicornis), which was just covered by a film of sea water in a rock-pool. It looked very attractive, and whilst he was admiring its beauty a bee buzzed straight into the embraces of the "crass," mistaking the tentacles for petals, and paying for the error with its life, for the remorseless fingers clutched it in their grasp and transferred it to the ready stomach !

[merged small][graphic][subsumed]

The Dahlia Wartlet (Tealia crassicornis).

The bright colours and elegant shapes of sea-anemones have caused them to be much sought after, both by amateur aquarium-keepers and the managers of our public institutions. About thirty species of them and their allies may be seen living in the tanks of the Crystal Palace, where they are usually fed on

[blocks in formation]

a diet of chopped mussels, conveyed to them by wooden forceps. In the sea they are thankful for

[merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small]

any organic waif or stray that may come within their reach. In the deeper tanks, where certain sea-anemones are placed, when live shrimps are turned into

« EelmineJätka »