THE ARROW MUZZLET. 237 



The heavy easterly gales of last autumn, coinciding with 

 the October spring tides, must have disturbed the Peachice 

 in their burrows ; for the species suddenly became common, 

 as many as fifty having found their way into the possession 

 of the Torquay dealers about that time. A few of these 

 fell to my lot, and enabled me to correct and amplify the 

 history of the species. 



These specimens were very lively, ever bending their 

 columns, and rapidly changing their forms. While under 

 examination, they frequently adhered by various points of 

 the column, and when lying on the side would, gradually 

 but quickly, bring the hinder extremity round, under the 

 body, nearly to the front, and then applying it to the bottom 

 of the vessel, adhere, not by the orifice, but by the swollen 

 surface around it. Constrictions were constantly passing 

 along, commencing about the middle of the column, and 

 passing off downwards, the effect of which was to throw 

 out the translucent posterior extremity, like a clear dis- 

 tended bladder, within which the septa could be very 

 distinctly defined. 



One only of the specimens survived, the others I dis- 

 sected. The former I put into a vase of sea-water with 

 a bottom of sand. This was at night ; in the morning it 

 was just beginning to insert the hinder extremity into the 

 sand, and thence the process of burrowing went on regu- 

 larly. In two hours it elevated the fore parts, and assumed 

 a perpendicular position, continuing to descend.* By 



* Mr. Holdsworth, who obtained another of the Torquay specimens, has 

 made an interesting observation on this process. "After it had selected a 

 suitable place for burrowing, in the darkest part of the vase, the posterior 

 extremity of the body became tapered to a fine point by a partial expulsion 

 of the contained water, and at the same time turned downwards and 

 pressed slightly into the ground ; the fluid contents of the animal were 

 then forced back until the base was completely distended, and by this 

 means a shallow depression in the sand produced ; the tail then resumed 

 its conical shape, was again thrust into the ground, and swelled out ; and 

 these proceedings were continued until a hole was made sufficiently large 

 to admit the animal. Its first efforts in burrowing had but little effect, 



