Page:The fairy tales of science.djvu/166

wandering friends the anemones, and the presence of food stimulates them to more active efforts and the display of greater intelligence than we should give them credit for. Mr. Gosse relates a very amusing anecdote about feeding a madrepore. He once put a minute spider, as large as a pin's head, into the water, pushing it down with a bit of grass to a coral, which was lying with partially exposed tentacles. The instant the insect touched the tip of the tentacle it adhered, and was drawn in with the surrounding tentacles between the plates, near their inward margin. Watching the animal with a lens, he saw the small mouth slowly open, and move over to that side, the lips gaping unsymmetrically; while at the same time, by a movement as imperceptible as that of the hour-hand of a watch, the tiny prey was carried along between the plates towards the corner of the mouth. The latter, however, moved most, and at length reached the edges of the plates, and gradually took in and closed upon the insect; after which it slowly returned to its usual place in the centre of the disc. After some quarter of an hour Mr. Gosse caught a house-fly, and taking hold of its wings with a pair of pliers, plunged it under water. The tentacles held it at the first contact as before, and drew it down upon the mouth, which instantly began to gape in expectation. But the struggles of the fly's legs perhaps tickled the coral's tentacles in an unwonted manner, for they shrank away, and presently released