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164
Glaucus; Or, The Wonders of the Shore
·
Charles Kingsley
82
And
what
does
this
exquisitely
delicate
creature
do
with
its
pretty
mouth?
Alas
for
fact!
It
sips
no
honey-dew,
or
fruits
from
paradise.—
“I
put
a
minute
spider,
as
large
as
a
pin’s
head,
into
the
water,
pushing
it
down
to
the
coral.
The
instant
it
touched
the
tip
of
a
tentacle,
it
adhered,
and
was
drawn
in
with
the
surrounding
tentacles
between
the
plates.
With
a
lens
I
saw
the
small
mouth
slowly
open,
and
move
over
to
that
side,
the
lips
gaping
unsymmetrically;
while
with
a
movement
as
imperceptible
as
that
of
the
hour
hand
of
a
watch,
the
tiny
prey
was
carried
along
between
the
plates
to
the
corner
of
the
mouth.
The
mouth,
however,
moved
most,
and
at
length
reached
the
edges
of
the
plates,
gradually
closed
upon
the
insect,
and
then
returned
to
its
usual
place
in
the
centre.”
Mr.
Gosse
next
tried
the
fairy
of
the
walking
mouth
with
a
house-fly,
who
escaped
only
by
hard
fighting;
and
at
last
the
gentle
creature,
after
swallowing
and
disgorging
various
large
pieces
of
shell-fish,
found
viands
to
its
taste
in
“the
lean
of
cooked
meat
and
portions
of
earthworms,”
filling
up
the
intervals
by
a
perpetual
dessert
of
microscopic
animalcules,
whirled
into
that
lovely
avernus,
its
mouth,
by
the
currents
of
the
delicate
ciliæ
which
clothe
every
tentacle.
The
fact
is,
that
the
Madrepore,
like
those
glorious
sea-anemones
whose
living
flowers
stud
every
pool,
is
by
profession
a
scavenger
and
a
feeder
on
carrion;
and
being
as
useful
as
he
is
beautiful,
really
comes
under
the
rule
which
he
seems
at
first
to
break,
that
handsome
is
who
handsome
does.
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