74 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Aporrhais, Fusus antiquus. No spawn of Buccinum undatum 

 was visible. 



A few examples of Eledone ci?Tosa represented the Cuttle- 

 fishes. 



Mingled in great numbers with the debris, or stretched 

 in hundreds on the sand, were swarms of Opliioglyplia 

 lacertosa, which forms a favourite food of the gulls. A few 

 examples of Solas ter papposus, S. endeca, and Astropecten also 

 occurred ; but Asterias rubens was not common, nor were 

 there many examples of Ecliinus esculeiitas, and scarcely 

 a Holothurian. 



One of the most striking features was the great abun- 

 dance of the gigantic annelid Alitta virens (the "rigger" of 

 the fishermen), which literally would have filled carts, and 

 as it was, the fishermen scooped them up with their hands 

 and placed them in sacks for bait. This fine form is often 

 three feet in length, and probably stretches more in life, and 

 is beautifully tinted of an iridescent bluish green variegated 

 with the red blood-vessels on the leaf-like dorsal cirri. The 

 under surface is of a pinkish fawn colour, and the whole 

 animal is at once graceful and lively in movement. It 

 is an epitokous condition of a species which occurs in con- 

 siderable numbers near the pole-rock at the southern limit 

 of the west sands, yet it must abound in other parts of the 

 bay if not beyond it, such as near the Bell Rock. These 

 annelids make valuable bait for both round and flat fishes, 

 just as Nereis cnltrifera does in the Channel Islands and the 

 southern shores. The men place the latter in porcelain 

 vessels with sand, and thus preserve them for some days. 

 Alitta was in greatest abundance beyond the salmon-stake 

 nets and towards the Eden, and hundreds sheltered them- 

 selves by boring in the sand. In former years the epitokous 

 examples were found somewhat later, viz., in April and May, 

 so that the reproductive season, as in other annelids, extends 

 over a considerable period. Besides the foregoing annelids, 

 a few examples of Lag-is koreni, Clwtic infundibulum, Poly- 

 noids, Sigalion mathildce, and Nerine foliosa were obtained. 



Of other Polychaeta, the lobworm {Arenicola marina), and 

 NepJitliys, the rag-worm, were abundant, so that they might 



