Oct. 1, 1S67.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



221 



tempted more than this barren enumeration, the 

 present number of Science-Gossip would have con- 

 tained but a single chapter — "a consummation not 



Fig. 2 IS. Mactra stultorum. 



devoutly to be wished." The Nudibranche Molluscs, 

 found on the rocks at low tide, have been almost 



Fig. 2!0. ^Eolis coronata. 



forgotten, and of these the pretty little iEolis 

 coronata (fig. 219) is very attractive. Annelids, or 



sea-worms, must also be 

 passed by, with an al- 

 lusion to the tubes of 

 a species of Terebella, 

 found either attached to 

 or drifted amongst the 

 seaweed. These tubes 

 are about the thickness of 

 a tobacco-pipe (fig. 220), 

 nd composed of sand, 

 little stones, and minute 

 shells, or fragments of 

 shells, agglutinated toge- 

 ther into a flexible tube, 

 somewhat after the man- 

 ner of the cases of the 

 caddis. The mouth of 

 the tube is fringed with 

 a number of smaller hair- 

 like tubes of a similar 

 construction. Lively 

 crustaceans "left by the 

 tide " consist of crabs of 

 all sizes, hermit crabs 

 — shrimps, and sand- 

 hoppers. It is expedient to furnish the juveniles 

 with small hand-nets, and send them off to the 

 shallow pools on the sands to catch shrimps, so that 



Fig. 220. Tube of Terebella. 



we may come to a termination. As for their elders 

 (like " the three clerks " in the ballad)— 



Sauntering down the shady hollow, 



Strolling o'er the sunny sands, 

 Letting fancy idly follow . 



Steamers bound for distant lands ; 

 Watching, through the distance hazy, 



Vessels standing out to sea, 



we will leave them to try an aquarium in a hand- 

 basin, as we have done. If a recipe is desired, let 

 the following suffice. Take a basin, bowl, or pan 

 of coarse earthenware capable of holding a gallon of 

 water ; spread on the bottom thereof a quart of small 

 beach pebbles well washed from sand. Lay thereon 

 two or three stones, or fragments of rock, on which 

 green seaweeds are vigorously growing. Over all 

 pour a half gallon of clear sea-water, and allow it to 

 stand a day or two. Einally, collect and transfer to 

 the bowl half a dozen sea-anemones, a dog-whelk or 

 two, — and anything else will probably be too much, 

 for shrimps and sandhoppers will soon die, hermit- 

 crabs won't like it, aeolis will attack the anemones 

 when they become hungry : hence it is advisable to 

 "leave well alone," and be content with strolling up 

 and down to ascertain what has been " reft by the 

 tide." 



MERMIS NIGRESCENS. 



By R. T. Lewis.* 



npHE subject of the following remarks — Mermis 

 •*- nigrescens— is a creature concerning which 

 there has of late been much discussion, both of a 

 scientific and of a speculative character. The facts 

 of its recent appearance have gone the round of the 

 newspapers and serials, and it has been a topic of 

 conversation at several meetings of learned societies. 

 It will no doubt be remembered that the first two 

 days of last June were unusually hot, with light 

 wind from the S.W. ; and that during the night 

 of the 2nd a remarkably heavy rain-fall took place 9 

 accompanied by lightning and thunder. On the 

 following morning much surprise was created in 

 the districts over which the storm had passed by 

 the appearance of great numbers of hair-worms on 

 the leaves of plants, bushes, and, in some instances, 

 of trees. They were chiefly observed to be hanging 

 by one extremity, and waving their slender bodies 

 to and fro in the air, seeming at first sight to be so 

 many threads of silk ; but on being taken into the 

 hand, they immediately coiled up in that peculiarly 

 intricate manner which originally suggested a name 

 for the family to which they belong. Mention was 

 made of them at the meeting of the Entomological 

 Society on the evening of June 3rd, but they were 

 then thought to be Gordius aquaticus ; and at the 

 meeting of the Linnsean Society on June 22nd, 



* Read at the Quekett Microscopical Club, Aug. 23rd. 



