As it dances gaily along, streams of water,
bearing nutritive particles, pass through the orifice into its
stomach.
In this creature, as in many of the lower animals, there is a
remarkable power of retaining vitality after the most serious
injuries; nay, in portions actually severed from the body, it will
continue for some time. Mr Patterson, in his excellent _Introduction
to Zoology_, mentions that on one occasion he divided a fragment of
the body of a beroe, lately taken from the shore and shattered by a
storm, 'into portions so minute that one piece of skin had but two
cilia attached to it, yet the vibration of these organs continued for
nearly a couple of days afterwards!' But we must leave the beroe,
charmer though it be.
Another member of this section--the _Ciliograde acalephae_, as they are
called--is the Girdle of Venus, which resembles a ribbon in form, and
is sometimes five or six feet in length, covered with cilia, and
brilliantly phosphorescent. This must be one of the most beautiful of
the _fireworks_ of the ocean.
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