The Strangest Things in the World: A Book About Extraordinary Manifestations of NatureHenry, Thomas R. (Thomas Robert)
History
The Strangest Things in the World: A Book About Extraordinary Manifestations of Nature
Henry, Thomas R. (Thomas Robert)
Animal behavior; Natural history
As mentioned before, some bryozoans appear to consist of three animals
in one. The third is the so-called avicularium, or bird’s head, also
vividly described by Gosse: “The cells [of this particular species]
are oblong-shaped, and look much like a sack of corn. Just below one
of the spines that crown the summit of the cell on one of the edges
is situated a small lump which bears a remarkable resemblance to the
head of a bird. It has a strongly hooked beak with two well-formed
mandibles, one of which is removable. You observe it deliberately
opening, like the beak of a bird and then closing with a strong,
sudden snap. The birds' heads are not inhabitants of the cells. They
are not even integral parts of them. The cells have their own proper
inhabitants, each leading its own life and each essentially formed on
the same plan as that of the baby in the cradle. There is no visible
connection between its and the bird’s head, which is cut off entirely
from the interior of the cell. This head has a muscular system entirely
its own. It seizes small animals but has no means of passing them into
its mouth”.
The real function of these avicularia is unknown. They have been
pictured as fierce watchdogs kept by the bryozoa for defense against
approaching enemies. Gosse speculates that they may serve indirectly as
hunters, seizing and killing small animals. The disintegrating bodies
of their prey, attract hordes of smaller sea creatures which can be
gathered up by the tentacles of the polypide.
_The Ways of Crabs_
Crabs that wear clothes, others that carry arms, and still others
that march like regiments of soldiers are among the curiosities of
Australia’s Great Barrier coral reef.
One crab forces the coral polyp to build a limestone palace for its
abode. The female of this species lodges on the polyp when it is in the
larval state and causes an irritation which forces the host animal to
build up the walls. The resulting house is just big enough for the crab
to move about in comfortably. There always is a door through which she
obtains her food.
Another species merely sits on the end of a sprouting coral which,
growing outward, makes a long, circular burrow for the crustacean.
Through this it can move backwards and forwards at will. The forward
part of its body is enclosed in a hard shell the exact color of the
coral so that when the crab sits at the door of its burrow it cannot
be distinguished from the coral.
Still another crab carries two sea anemones, one in each “hand”,
wherever it goes. In its first few months of life it seizes these
plant-flowers—living animals with stalks and petals like flowers which
ordinarily are attached to rocks under the water—about the centers
of the stalks. Thenceforth it moves about like a person carrying two
umbrellas.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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