128 Illus'rations i?i British Zoology: — Serpida tuhuldria, 



of the plate, in unrivalled beauty, and an object of never failing 

 admiration. The worm, however, seemed never either to 

 slumber or sleep; for, on any slight agitation of the water, 

 occasioned, for example, by walking across the room or leaning 

 on the table, it would at once take alarm, and hurriedly retreat 

 within the shelter of its tube. It was never off its guard, 

 and would often, when lying apparently in calm indulgence, 

 suddenly withdraw, in evident alarm, without a cause but 

 what was gendered by its own natural timidity; for the phan- 

 toms of dreams are not, it may be, the visitants only of 

 higher intelligences, but come as they like, in a fearful or 

 cheerful mood, even to these lower things. It never pro- 

 truded itself farther than is shown in fig. 23. a ; and, after 

 becoming weak and sickly, it first threw off one half of its 

 pride, a branchial tuft ; and after several hours the other 

 was likewise cast away, when the poor mutilated creature 

 buried itself, still living and to live for a day or so longer, in 

 its own house and cemetery. 



The anus is at the posterior extremity, as in other worms ; 

 but the remains of its food are ejected from the mouth of the 

 shell, in small egg-shaped pellets. By what contrivance this 

 is done, I do not know: are the pellets forced along the 

 dorsal furrow? The fan-shaped fascicles are its breathing 

 organs ; and the brushes of bristles in the sides of the 

 mantle are the organs which enable it to move up and down 

 the tube, assisted, undoubtedly, by the rough spots on the 

 margins of the body. This is traversed down the centre of 

 the back with a vessel filled with red blood, and which sends 

 off minute branches to almost every ring. 



Mr. Berkeley has attempted to draw a distinction between 

 Serpula arundo and tubularia. The former, he says, may be 

 known "by its more slender form and delicate substance; 

 'neither is the aperture expanded, as in S. tubularia. The 

 animal differs from S. tubularia in its oblong dorsal area; 

 while that of the latter is much attenuated behind ; and in the 

 absence of the operculum." Now, if we turn to Montagu, 

 the original describer of S. tubularia, and whose name 

 therefore ought to be retained, we shall find him telling us 

 that the animal has no operculum ; and his description of it 

 agrees exactly, so far as lam able to judge, with Mr. Berkeley's. 

 Indeed, it seems to me, that this very acute and excellent 

 naturalist has confounded the S. tubularia of Montagu with 

 the S. wrmicularis of authors : for, on this supposition, his 

 remarks on their distinctive characters will be found per- 

 fectly correct and decisive. 



Benvick upon Tweedy Feb, 19. 1833. 



