446 Miscellaneous. 



wheel-like shape, from which rise in a radiate form delicate cilia ; 

 these cilia move rapidly, and with them, after raising the shell on its 

 edge, the animal runs round, and at times darts across with surpri- 

 sing swiftness ; occasionally they lie on their side and then spin 

 round on the shell with the mouth going backwards, occasioned by 

 the position and rapid movements of the cilia. They frequently rest, 

 and withdraw altogether into the shell. The adult animal is tuber- 

 cled, about l|^ths of an inch long, covered with dark brown and red 

 blotches intermingled with spots of white ; it is furnished with two 

 horns, one on each side of the head ; these are leaf- like on the hinder 

 part. The branchiae are placed in a semicircular manner near the tail, 

 the two ends being turned in so as almost to touch the outside, the 

 open part being towards the tail ; on the outer part of the semicircle 

 are eighteen feather-like branchiae, with three on each of the parts 

 which turn in. They left the rocks in February, and I have not seen 

 one since ; thus showing them to be inhabitants of deep water, and 

 that they only came in shore for the purpose of shedding their ova. 

 I succeeded in hatching the young from two different sets of ova se- 

 veral days between. 



Up to March of the present year 1845, I have not seen a single 

 animal of the above Doris, or any of the ova : this is probably owing 

 to the severity of the weather. The first part of 1844 was much 

 more genial, and thus tempted the Doris in-shore. I merely throw 

 this out as a hint well worthy of notice. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XIV. 



Fig. 1. The embryo with its wheel-like arms displayed when raised on its 



edge. 

 Fig. 2. Ditto on its side, 

 i Fig. 3. Empty shell : — all highly magnified.. 



^^ * 



ON THE NIDI OF BUCCINUM RETICULATUM. BY C. W. PEACH "*•. 



I In your valuable publication for March 1844, p. 203, you inserted 

 ^ an opinion of mine, that the nidus there described belonged to the 

 Buccinum reticulatum ; I have since continued to notice them, and 

 all my observations completely confirm what I then stated. I suc- 

 ceeded in the spring, and again in August 1844, by keeping the nidi 

 in sea- water in my house, in hatching the young; thus showing 

 that, like the Purpura lapillus, they deposit their nidi all the year 

 round. 7'hese young so much resemble those of the Doris, both in 

 shell and animal, that the former description will do for this. It is 

 a singular circumstance, that an animal which is naked at maturity 

 should require a shelly covering when young, as well as one which 

 always possesses a shell in all its stages of growth. It is one of 

 those interesting circumstances which meet the naturalist at every 

 step he takes ; to me it proves design in providing a covering to 

 shelter it when in a weak and helpless state. Both these young 

 shells have myriads of enemies in the small infusoria, which may be 

 noticed with a powerful microscope hovering round them, and ready 



* Read at the last Annual Meeting of the Royal Institution of Cornwall. 



