]
The Anemone can press the water into them, and so force them to open
out. In rather the same way you can expand the fingers of a glove by
forcing your breath into them. The Anemone, you see, can open or close
just as it pleases.
What does it eat, and how does it find food? Perhaps you have watched an
open Anemone in a pool, or in a glass tank, and seen it at its meals. A
small creature swims near, and touches one of the feelers. Instead of
darting away, it appears to be held still; and then other feelers bend
towards it and hold the victim. Then they are all drawn to the centre of
the Anemone, carrying their prey with them; and the feelers, prey and
all, are tucked out of sight.
That is the way the Anemone obtains its food. As soon as the feelers get
hold of a small animal they carry it to the opening of a tube in the
centre. This is the mouth, leading to the stomach. Very often the
feelers, with their victim, are tucked away into the stomach, and the
feelers do not appear again for some time. Is not this a strange way of
eating!
Much stranger still is the way in which the food is held, and made so
helpless that it cannot escape.
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