Of a very beautiful appearance, and is found on the British coast. The
animal consists of a flattened stem, or body, which is furnished with an
internal bone, and dilates into an expanded part, consisting of several
pinnae, or lateral branches, which are divided on their inner edges into a
number of tubular processes, through each of which is protruded a part of
the animal, resembling the head of a hydra or polype; the whole animal may,
therefore, be considered as a very compound or ramified union of polypi,
the bodies of which are contained in the naked part or stem, and from
thence ramify into a vast number of processes, each furnished with its
particular head. The animal emits a very strong phosphoric light, and it is
even so luminous, that it is no uncommon circumstance for the fishermen to
see the fish which happen to be swimming near it merely by the light of the
Pens. Its colour is a bright red crimson, and the general size that of the
figure.
Mr. Ellis, in the Philosophical Transactions, has published some specimens
of this extraordinary animal, of a kidney-shaped form, and observes that it
nourishes and supports itself by the succours of polype filaments, which we
have expressed in the Engraving in a magnified size. By these they take in
their food and discharge the exuviae. In case of danger these little
succours are drawn in.
Sea Pens are termed _locomotive zoophytes,_ and swim in the manner of
fish. Five hundred polypes may frequently be numbered on a single feather;
and they number among the most rare and interesting animals of the order to
which they belong.
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