328 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



times tolerably vivid ; or it is brownish or variegated, 

 owing to the quantity of mud which the worm 

 swallows, apparently as its ordinary diet. 



Through its long filamentous arms and branchiae 

 the blood ebbs and flows, dyeing them of the richest 

 crimson, or leaving them of a faint yellow colour. 

 The tangled skein which they have formed consists of 

 living coils, ever binding and unbinding their glisten- 

 ing knots, and catching up grains of sand, or atoms 

 of slime, till the animal retires into an envelope of 

 fragments, which, by clustering together, become a 

 case, which encloses and protects it. 



The natural and favourite habitat of these Anne- 

 lides is in the muddy fissures of rocks, or under tufts 

 of sea-weed or other soft covering, and they are 

 generally met with considerably above low- water 

 mark. They are distributed very profusely upon 

 most shores, but are never to be found amongst sand. 

 While the animal lurks in its retreat, its cirrhi are 

 spread like so many worms over the neighbouring 

 surface. 



The Cirratulus retires from the light. If kept in a 

 white saucer covered with a shell or stone, it will 

 creep out at night ; or by filling the vessel containing 

 it to such a height that the tips of the cirrhi cannot 

 reach the surface of the water, it will abandon its con- 

 cealment and crawl up the side, thus affording a 

 satisfactory view of its structure ; but, when forcibly 

 removed, the whole creature contracts into a con- 

 fused bunch. 



The Cirratulus lays its eggs during the months of 

 May and June : the ova are very numerous, minute. 



