gaertner's spoon-worm. 26' 1 



the aperture extends into a very long amorphous appen- 

 dage, frequently three or four times the length of the body, 

 at other times contracted very short, but never receding 

 within the mouth : in the former state it is usually flat, 

 in the latter the sides fold together and almost form a 

 tube, becoming much scalloped or wrinkled at the margin, 

 and at the base the sides unite forming a sort of funnel to 

 the mouth ; by this implement not only nourishment is 

 collected but its only progressive motion is performed. It 

 is in continual action, thrown about in all directions in 

 search of food, and occasionally by fastening it to a distant 

 body the animal is drawn forward or turned to either side. 

 At the anterior end immediately behind the long appen- 

 dage are two very minute feelers, which are not always 

 protruded. The posterior half of the body is of a bluish 

 gray, the other purplish pink ; the appendage saffron, paler 

 at the extremity. This curious animal was kept alive in 

 sea-water several days for examination, and was never ob- 

 served to take in or eject that element like the Holothuria 

 tribe, but at the posterior end is an evident opening for the 

 discharge of the faeces. 11 



In this characteristic description of Montagu no men- 

 tion is made of a trunk ; but in both this animal and the 

 next there is a retractile proboscis resembling that of a 

 Sipunculus, but unprovided with tentacula at the extre- 

 mity. The singular spoon-shaped appendage of the mouth 

 would seem to be a sheath for the proboscis, and a means 

 of bringing: the food of the creature within its reach. The 

 internal anatomy nearly resembles that of the Echiurus, 

 but the intestinal canal is not so long. 



Hitherto this animal has been found only on the coasts 

 of Devon and Cornwall. Gaertner and Montagu describe 

 it as living among submarine rocks. 



