The Sea-Mouse.
(APHRODITE ACULEATA.)
'For seas have ...
As well as earth, vines, roses, nettles, melons,
Mushrooms, pinks, gilliflowers, and many millions
Of other plants, more rare, more strange than these,
As very fishes living in the seas.'
[Illustration:
1 THE SEA MOUSE (_Aphrodite aculeata_)
2 THE DORIS
3 YOUNG OF THE DORIS
4 EOLIS PAPILLOSA]
XVII.
Beauteous stars also the sea contains, as numberless, though not so
brilliant in appearance as those which stud the firmament of heaven;
flowers, too, grow beneath the wave, and rival in loveliness the gems
which adorn our fields and hedge-rows. Nay, more, like the land, the
ocean owns its various grasses, its lemons, and cucumbers, its worms,
slugs, and shelly snails, its hedgehogs, its birds, its ducks and geese
(_anatidæ_), its dogs, its hares, and lastly its _mice_ (_aphroditæ_.)
The latter objects, despite their unprepossessing name, being in no
wise less interesting than those above mentioned.
The _Aphrodite aculeata_ is, perhaps, one of the most gorgeous
creatures that inhabits the seas of our British coast. Its body is
covered with a coating of short brown hairs, but as these approach the
sides of the animal, they become intermixed with long dark bristles,
the whole of which are of an iridescent character. In one respect
this creature bears no resemblance to its namesake of the land, being
extremely slow and sluggish in its movements (at least according to
our experience) when kept in confinement. Some writers, however, affirm
that the Aphrodite possesses the power, although seldom exercised, of
both running and swimming through the water with considerable speed.
In general the animal loves to tenant the slimy mud, and wherever the
writer has happened to come upon a specimen at the sea-shore, its back
has always been thickly coated with sand or dirt. The Sea-Mouse, then,
unlike the peacock, can never be deemed an emblem of haughty pride,
yet has nature in her lavish beauty endowed this humble inhabitant of
the deep with a richness of plumage, so to speak, fully equal in its
metallic brilliancy to that which decorates the tail of the strutting
bird we have mentioned. As the bristles of the Aphrodite are moved
about, tints--green, yellow, and orange, blue, purple, and scarlet--all
the hues of Iris play upon them with the changing light, and shine with
a metallic effulgence. Even if the animal, when dead, is placed in
clear water, the same varied effect is seen as often as the observer
changes his position.
Not only are the _Setæ_ worthy of notice on account of their lustrous
beauty, but also for their shape, and the important part they play in
the economy of the animal. These lance-like spines seem to be used by
the Aphrodite as weapons of defence, like the spines of the hedgehog
or porcupine. In some species they are like harpoons, each being
supplied with a double series of strong barbs.
The instruments can all be withdrawn into the body of the animal at
will, but we can easily conceive that such formidable weapons being
retracted into its flesh would not add to the creature's comfort--in
fact they would produce a deadly effect, were it not for the following
simple and beautiful contrivance.
Each spine is furnished with a double sheath composed of two blades,
between which it is lodged; these sheaths closing upon the sharp points
of the spear when the latter is drawn inwards, effectually guard the
surrounding flesh from injury.
The shape of this animal is oval, the back convex, while the under part
presents a flat and curious ribbed-like appearance. Its length varies
from three to five inches; specimens, however, are sometimes to be
procured, even on our own shores, of much larger dimensions.