260 Lumbrtcus linedhis. 



tremity, of a fine pellucid red colour, or clear white, marked 

 longitudinally with a red zigzag line, often blotched with white 

 and dusky spots, marking the position and contents of the 

 internal viscera, distinctly annular ; head pointed, the mouth 

 placed in a sinus beneath, edentulous ; rings longer than their 

 diameter, cylindrical, bulged a little at the middle, whence 

 the fascicles of retractile bristles issue ; bristles in four series, 

 few in number, five or seven in the superior and three or four 

 in the inferior tufts, short, pellucid, somewhat curved like an 

 Italic y^ and not very acutely pointed ; on the ventral surface of 

 the eighth or ninth ring there is a pair of remarkable mam- 

 miform processes, terminated with a minute tubular pap : this 

 and the two or three adjoining rings are thicker than the 

 others, and white ; anal segment emarginate ; the anus terminal. 



The skin of this worm is a clear very faint yellow, so that 

 the red colour of the body depends on its blood-vessels, which 

 run from one extremity to the other ; one large vessel on each 

 side of the intestine, uniting in the anterior segment, and 

 being much slenderer there than they are lower down. The 

 vessels and intestine are straight or tortuous, according to 

 the state of the worm as to its contraction or expansion : 

 the latter is usually filled with earthy matter, but is pale or 

 empty at the divisions between the rings. When contracted, 

 the sides are minutely crenulate. The mammiform papillae 

 are obviously connected with the generative function, and are 

 not always present. I have seen them, in a great number of 

 individuals, fully developed in January ; and the ring to which 

 they belong, as well as the one above and below it, are filled 

 with a milk-white matter, over which some fine branchlets of 

 the blood-vessels ramify, and the skin is thickened at the part. 



Z/iimbricus lineatus resides in places similar to the pre- 

 ceding, and is equally common. When thrown into fresh 

 water it is evidently pained and soon dies. Cuvier has placed 

 it in a section of his genus Nais (Reg. jinim., iii. 212.); but 

 the propriety of this collocation may be doubted, and it will 

 be better to retain the Mullerian name until the allied species, 

 several of which have not yet been described by any one, 

 are better known. 



BerwicJc-upon- Tweed. 



[In VII. 130. 131., two minute vermiform animals are 

 figured from our valued correspondent C. M., which he has 

 there denominated " Nais Lin. serpentina Gmel" and " Zum- 

 bricus ? Clitellio Savigny ? pellucida." It has been suggested 

 to us that at least one of the animals figured may be a larva. 

 Our publishing this suggestion may lead to the testing of it.] 



