. Ocean wonders: a companion for the seaside. s of almostany kind he will appropriate, even to pieces of stone or of mine showed considerable taste and an idea of style,preferring always the most gaudy colors which he could findin the. tank. These animals will spend hours every day attheir toilet, appropriating with their hand-like claws bits ofsea-weed, Sertularia, sponge, or Tvbularia. One will per-haps place a bit on the tip of his nose, or suspend from it along, ribbon-like strip of red or green algse, or affix similarfragments to his legs, elbows, or knees, as £ f /j^ we may call
. Ocean wonders: a companion for the seaside. s of almostany kind he will appropriate, even to pieces of stone or of mine showed considerable taste and an idea of style,preferring always the most gaudy colors which he could findin the. tank. These animals will spend hours every day attheir toilet, appropriating with their hand-like claws bits ofsea-weed, Sertularia, sponge, or Tvbularia. One will per-haps place a bit on the tip of his nose, or suspend from it along, ribbon-like strip of red or green algse, or affix similarfragments to his legs, elbows, or knees, as £ f /j^ we may call does not appearto take these pieces atrandom, but has theair of selecting themwith care, and thenleisurely cutting themoff from the largefronds with his ownnippers, of which hehas two pairs, oneupon each of his twoforemost arms. Hav-ing severed the de-sired portion, he takes it up in one of his hands (for his nip-pers serve for hands as well as shears), and, placing one endof it to his mouth, evidently deposits upon it a species of. Tite Decoeatok. 50 THE OCEAN. mucus or marine cement, which secures the object in theposition in which his lordship sees fit to arrange it, and inwhich matter he is somewhat fastidious. This mucus musthave great strength, for in his native element he will walkabout thus arrayed, without any danger of his ornaments be-ing washed away even by the rolling surf. In the tank,when his toilet is completed, he will advance to the front ormost conspicuous spot he can find, and as near to the specta-tor as he can conveniently get, with a self-satisfied ah*, as muchas to say: Im in full dress now; how do you like mystyle ? I have also had some of these decorators whoshowed a sort of paternal affection for the young actiniae, each seeming to takea particular pride inplacing them, some-times five or six atonce, upon his back,among the bits of algsealready there, and thenparading round as ifbound to give his petsa free ride. At certain periods,like all
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectmarineanimals, bookye
