ROUGH HOUND. 



15 



round some tuft of flexible coral or sea-weed. The case thus 

 becomes drawn from the body, and the remaining tendrils serve 

 to bind it to the substance to which it is attached; to which, 

 with a curling and contracting motion it becomes bound very 

 firmly. I have seen where this action has caused the whole to 

 assume the appearance of a nest, with the treasure well con- 

 cealed within it, and of such a one the following is a particular 

 description: The main support of the whole mass was the flexible 

 coral called Gorgonia verrucosa, about the branches of which 

 the tendrils were entwined. The case still held the embryo, 

 unhatched, within it; and the tendrils were so embedded and 

 matted with the branches, as well as with the twisted threads of 

 Sertularice growing on the same stone, as to shew that the prin- 

 cipal portion of the Gorgonia (sea fern) and the whole of the 

 Sertularice had obtained their growth since the egg-case had 

 been deposited. There was also attached to this egg-case a 

 pecten (shell-fish) about three lines in length, some serpulne 

 {triquetrce) and anomise {ungues), and a considerable portion of 

 one side of the case was covered with a thin coating of alcyo- 

 nium. This was about the middle of December, and the 

 coldness of such a season may explain the long delay which 

 appears to have arisen in the developement and escape of the 

 embryo. But that it is not usually accomplished in a short 

 time appears from the fact, that some egg-cases placed in pools 

 of the rocks exposed to the free access of the sea, were not 

 developed in several weeks, although they had made suflScient 

 advancement to shew that it would be accomplished in due 

 season. 



There are four slits at the corners of the egg-case, which have 

 attracted the notice of naturalists, but the use of which has 

 not yet received a satisfactory explanation. One supposition 

 is, that they serve to admit water to the embryo within the 

 case; but on trial I have found that the presence of even a 

 small quantity of sea-water at an early stage of its existence 

 is fatal to life. Another supposition is that they serve to 

 allow for the growth of the embryo by providing a means 

 of escape for any fluid that might accumulate in the vacant 

 space, and interfere with the growth of the enclosed young. 

 Their use is at least obscure, as I have not been able to dis- 

 cover any corresponding slit in the egg-case of its kindred 



