HAND OF BARNACLE.
The Sabella which inhabits the tube, is of itself a most attractive object. Most elegant fringed filaments proceed from the head, and wave back and forth like a fan, and near the ends of these delicate slender filaments are little black balls, supposed to be eyes. If they are eyes, the Sabella has no lack of vision, and this may account for his seeming watchfulness. He is always on the alert and drops down into his house at any approach. Only with the utmost caution will you have an opportunity to leisurely look at his rare beauty.
When for the first time I saw this elegant, beautiful creature rising out of the tube, and waving its fringed fan-like filaments, I did not wonder at Mr. Gosse's enthusiasm. Neither was I surprised that he should be reminded of the old Roman mythology and call the zoophytes which surround the tube, "Lares," for the rare beauty of Sabella would suggest the protection of guardian spirits. He says:
"These curious creatures have afforded much entertainment, not only to myself, but to those scientific friends to whom I have had opportunities of exhibiting them. When I see them surrounding the mansion of the Sabella, gazing, as it were, after him as he retreats into his castle, flinging their wild arms over its entrance, and keeping watch with untiring vigilance until he reappears, it seems to require no very vivid fancy to imagine them so many guardian demons; and the Lares of the old Roman mythology occurring to memory, I described the form under the scientific appellation of Lar Sabellarum. You may, however, if it pleases you better, call them 'witches dancing round the charmed pot.'"
When the tide is out you will frequently notice barnacles adhering to the rocks, or to the timbers used in the construction of wharves. Pray stop and examine them critically and see what admirable fishers they are. Their fishing-nets are composed of several long, flexible, jointed fingers, thickly beset with sensitive hairs. When the fisher wants a meal he thrusts his long hand (Fig. 3) out the door of his stone house; the sensitive fingers quickly tell when they come in contact with anything good to eat, and they curl over and grasp it and convey it to the mouth.
These barnacles are wonderful creatures and well worthy your continuous study. They pass through several stages. When young they are a gay rolicking set, swimming freely in the water; but as maturity approaches they settle down in stone houses, never more to rove about, and set up fishing for a living.
XII.—RHIZOPODS.
Rhizopods are the lowest creatures in the animal kingdom. Some of them are apparently nothing more than animated protoplasm. Protoplasm pertains to the first formation of living bodies, whether vegetable or animal, and it appears to be only a viscid, glutinous, unformed mass of jelly-like substance, yet these rhizopods seem endowed with something more than simple life.
