314 THE AQUARIAX NATURALIST. 



any name you please), are seen to form two tufts or 

 sheaves of darts, sometimes combining every form of 

 our aggressive weapons. Here are curved blades with 

 two cutting edges, the one convex, the other concave ; 

 there are the types of the broadsword of the High- 

 lander, the sabre-poignard of the artilleryman, and 

 the sabre-bayonnette of the Vincennes chasseur. Else- 

 where we have harpoons, fish-hooks, and cutting- 

 blades of every shape, fixed to sharp handles, straight 

 or curved disks, and lances with their barbs bent 

 backwards, like the spears of Indian savages, as 

 though to tear the wounds inflicted, but enclosed in 

 a sheath preserving them from fracture or from 

 friction. 



These creatures, as might be expected from their 

 activity and erratic habits, are carnivorous ; and inno- 

 cent and beautiful as they look, they are furnished 

 with weapons of destruction of a unique and most 

 curious description. The mouth of the Nereis would 

 seem at first to be a simple opening, quite destitute 

 of teeth ; but on further examination, this aperture is 

 found to lead into a capacious bag, the walls of which 

 are provided with sharp horny plates, even more ter- 

 rible than those which occasionally are to be met with 

 in the gizzards of some of the higher animals. It is 

 not surprising, therefore, that by many anatomists 

 the structure in question has been described as a real 

 gizzard, or by some as the stomach itself. A little 

 attention to the habits of the living Annelide will, 

 however, soon reveal the true character of the organ. 

 No sooner does the creature wish to seize its food, 

 than this so-called gizzard is at once turned inside 



