238 MANTON COPELAND AND H. L. WIEMAN. 



SUMMARY. 



1. Nereis virens is carnivorous, although in the absence of 

 other food it has been observed to feed upon sea lettuce. Under 

 natural conditions it undoubtedly is omnivorous, since Gross 

 has found evidence of the presence of plant food in the digestive 

 tract. 



2. Nereis was never observed to leave its burrow when 

 baited with meat of various marine animals, but it may expose all 

 except the posterior segments of its body in reacting to the bait. 

 This does not mean that the worm may not leave its burrow 

 under other circumstances. The animal is highly thigmotactic. 



3. There is positive evidence that Nereis depends upon a 

 chemical sense in finding animal food ; sight playing little if any 

 part in the act. Currents in the burrow produced by an undula- 

 tory body movement are undoubtedly a factor in conveying 

 food stimuli to the sense organs. 



4. Nereis shows a marked tendency to extend its body from 

 the burrow in the direction of food, and failing to reach it, to re- 

 appear in a new position nearer the source of the stimulating mate- 

 rial. 



LITERATURE CITED. 

 Gross, A. 0. 



'21 The Feeding Habits and Chemical Sense of Nereis virens, Sars. Jour. 



Exp. Zool., vol. 32, pp. 427-442. 

 Maxwell, S. S. 



'97 Beitrage zur Gehirnphysiologie der Anneliden. Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., 



Bd. 67, S. 263-297. 

 Verrill, A. E. 



'73 Report on the Invertebrate Animals of Vineyard Sound and the Adja- 

 cent Waters. U. S. Com. of Fish and Fisheries, Pt. i, pp. 295-778. 



