THE GOLD-COMB. 227 



new feat ; one even less to have been anticipated than 

 the perpendicular wall-climbing I have described. It 

 was now swimming on the surface of the water, or 

 rather creeping along the inferior surface of the in- 

 cumbent stratum of air (for that is the true expression 

 of the action), as every one has observed the Pond 

 Snails [LimncBa) to do in summer, and as the Nudi- 

 branchs and many other Gasteropod Mollusca do 

 also. It was interesting to see how much at home 

 the little worm was at this performance ; I doubt not 

 he had enjoyed the fresh air in the same manner 

 many a time ; his body depended perpendicularly, 

 while the thread-like tentacles were spread over the 

 surface, wriggling and twining more suo, but advancing 

 along the halcyon sea so evenly, that in about an 

 hour after I saw that he had gained the opposite 

 side of the bounding glass, a distance of about five 

 inches. 



THE GOLDEN-COMBED WORM. 



These tube-forming Annelida are very interesting 

 creatures; and many of them possess great beauty, 

 from the exquisitely delicate and often highly-coloured 

 appendages with which they are furnished. Through 

 the kindness of the Eev. C. Kingsley, I possess a full- 

 grown specimen of the Golden-combed Worm {Amj^hi- 

 trite auricoma). When I at first had him he was 

 very shy and timid, but after a week or two he grew 

 more familiar, and would protrude his gilt combs, and 

 carry on his avocations, as if quite at home. At first 

 all that was to be seen was a tube formed like a 

 rounded obelisk, or a factory chimney ; being about 



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