Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/130

Rh foremost, whether the direction of the movement be vertical, horizontal, or as is most commonly the case, oblique; and the tentacles, and the long white proboscis drag behind in trailing lines. Now and anon, the shooting is suddenly suspended, the bell hangs over and remains awhile motionless, the tentacles are allowed to depend like spiders' webs, or are suddenly drawn up into shrivelled puckers, become mutually entangled and intertwisted, then slowly free themselves and hang down again. Sometimes the motionless bell itself sinks very gradually, and the tentacle-threads take the most elegant curves and arches in their descent.

The Sarsia is voracious, and the long and flexible peduncle is not only the stomach which digests the prey, but the hand which stretches forth to seek and to grasp it. I put into the bottle containing several the minute green-eyed fry of some fish, newly hatched, about half-an-inch in length. In a very few minutes I saw that a Sarsia had caught the little fish, which was seized and partly swallowed by the clubbed extremity of the peduncle. For hours afterwards the prey was visible, though more and more engulphed; the large head and prominent green eyes of the victim being very conspicuous.