A. K. Verrill— Marine N^emerteans of JSFev) Enghind^ etc. 421 



This common littoral and shallow water species is found on the 

 Amoi-ican coast from Long Island Sound to Lal)rador, Cumberland 

 Gulf, and Greenland. It is also common on the coasts of Great 

 Britain as far south as the Channel Islands (Mcintosh), and on all 

 the northern coasts of Europe. 



South of Cape Cod, I have collected it near New Haven, Conn., 

 and at the Thimble Islands ; Noank, Conn.; Newport, R. I.; Wood's 

 Holl, Mass.; and at various other localities. North of Cape Cod it 

 is more abundant and larger. Among the localities where I have 

 taken it are TrovincetoAvn and Barnstable, Mass.; Salem and Glou- 

 cester, Mass. ; Casco Bay ; Mount Desert Island ; Eastport, Me. ; 

 Grand Menan Island ; Halifax, N. S. ; Gulf of St. Lawrence, etc. 



It is particularly abundant and large at Eastport, Me., and at all 

 localities about the Bay of Fundy, where the shore is composed of 

 rocks. 



This species is active and restless in confinement. It creeps rather 

 rapidly and is prone to climb out of the water and perish by drying 

 up. It is a voracious feeder and lives largely upon annelids, I have 

 observed it in the act of swallowing a full grown scaly annelid, 

 {Lepidonottis squamatus), which was considerably greater in dia- 

 meter than the thickest })art of its own body. A specimen of this 

 kind, with the J^epidonottcs half swallowed, is preserved in the mu- 

 seum of Yale University. 



The eggs are deposited in great abundance on our shores under 

 stones near low-water mark, in midsummer. They are contained in 

 more or less cylindrical masses of a translucent, dull greenish, jelly- 

 like substance, made up of numerous capsules, (Plate xxxvaii, fig, 

 6c), These cylinders are usually from 3""" to 5""" in diameter, and 

 40"'"^' to 50'""^ in length, and are usually coiled in a spiral or ring-like 

 form. The eggs aro in several rows. In those clusters taken at one 

 date, in July, at Eastport, Me., I have found eggs in all stages of 

 development, while in some of them the recently hatched young 

 were still present. (PI. xxxviii, fig. 6d). 



I have adopted the name, viridis, given to this species by Otho 

 P""al)ricius, who communicated the first published descriptions and 

 figures to Midler, as stated both by him and by Mfiller, That this 

 is the species observed on the shores of Greenland and described by 

 Fabricius there can be no reasonable doubt. His brief description is 

 quite as correct and characteristic as the descriptions of such ani- 

 mals were wont to be at that time, and his figures, published by 

 Midler in the Zoologia Danica, represent the worm fairlj^ well when 



