338 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



vating a retreat that the Arenicola thus pioneers 

 beneath the soil the sand amongst which it works is 

 devoured and swallowed as the worm bores its way : 

 not that the sand itself is nutritive, or can be used as 

 food, but the organic matters mixed up with it the 

 last scrapings, as we might say, of the platter, are 

 thus made useful, and become assimilated as the 

 earthy medium traverses the alimentary canal, and it 

 is finally rejected in the form of the sand- coils which 

 betray the retreats of the " lugs " on every sea-beach. 



The Arenicola seems to be a favourite article of 

 food to all sorts of marine animals of carnivorous 

 appetite : not the apple of Discord itself stirred up 

 such sanguinary battles, nor was the body of Patroclus 

 more stoutly fought for by the rival Greeks and 

 Trojans than one of these worms, when offered as 

 the prize of fight among the multifarious combatants 

 ready to claim their portion. 



In order to study the mutual hostilities of these 

 warlike races, M. Quatrefages threw a large specimen 

 into a pool a few feet wide. A troop of shrimps at 

 first, scared by the sound, darted away ; but these soon 

 rallied, just as the Annelide was about to bury itself 

 in the sand, when one, more daring than the rest, 

 grappled it by its middle. Thus emboldened, others 

 lost no time in prosecuting the attack, and the poor 

 worm was pulled about in all directions, till a full- 

 grown prawn, rushing from behind a tuft of coralline, 

 dispersed his feebler comrades, and appropriated the 

 booty to himself. It was, however, at once seen that 

 he would speedily be forced to share the spoil, for at 

 that very instant there appeared some score of Turbos 



