312 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



emitting at every moment flashes of light, in which 

 all the prismatic colours are blended in the brightest 

 metallic reflexions. When these motions cease, it 

 crawls along the bottom of the trough, throwing 

 forward its thousand feet, and pushing out bundles 

 of darts from the broad knobs that contain them. 

 The sides of its trunk are studded with its organs of 

 respiration, resembling vermilion plumes when they 

 are swollen by the blood, which may be traced along 

 the dorsal vessel. At its head, enameled by the 

 brightest colours, are five organs of touch, encircling 

 an irregularly- puckered mouth, from which protrudes 

 at intervals a huge proboscis, armed with three pairs 

 of jaws. The corselet of the brightest beetle, the 

 bronzed wings of the butterfly, the blazing throat of 

 the humming-bird, would all look pale when com- 

 pared with the play of light flashing in large patches 

 over the rings of its body, glowing in its golden 

 threads, and sparkling over its amber and coral 

 fringes. 



The Nereides must be sought for in the excava- 

 tions of rocks, in 'the hollows of sponges, in univalve 

 or bivalve shells, in the interstices of the radicles of 

 sea- weeds, under stones, or, in general, in all kinds 

 of cracks and fissures. There are some which bury 



v 



themselves in mud or sand, where they excavate a 

 lodge proportioned to their dimensions, and some- 

 times they line this dwelling with a mucous material 

 secreted in sufficient abundance to construct a tube 

 or sheath. From this they put forth a greater or 

 less portion of their body, but rarely the posterior 

 extremity, so that they may be able to re-enter on 



