44 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



which, at first sight, seems merely like an irregularly- 

 puckered opening. But watch it for a few moments, 

 see how it opens and protrudes a large proboscis, 

 furnished with three pairs of jaws, and possessing a 

 diameter which equals that of the body, within which 

 it is enclosed as in a living sheath. Well ! is it not 

 wonderful ? Is there any animal which can contend 

 with it for the prize of decoration ? the corslet of the 

 brightest beetle, the speckled wings of the butterfly, 

 the sparkling throat of the humming bird, would all 

 look pale when compared with the play of light 

 flashing in large patches over the rings of its 

 body, glowing in its golden threads and sparkling 

 over its amber and coral fringes. 



Let us next examine these two Cirrhatulas which 

 belong to one and the same species, although they 

 differ so much in colour. The one which was cap- 

 tured under a stone that had been washed several 

 times daily by a rapid current, is of a dull red, 

 relieved by golden markings. The other, found in 

 the slimy mud that formed the bed from which a 

 meadow of Zostera seemed to derive its rank luxu- 

 riance, had borrowed from the soil which it inhabited 

 a deep and velvet-like blackness, over which there 

 played a bright bluish iridescence. In this animal 

 the branchial plumes give place to long filaments, 

 which move in all directions around it, and extend 

 afar as if they were so many living cables. They 

 are at once its arms and branchise, and the blood, as 

 by turns it ebbs and flows, dyes them of the richest 

 shade of carmine, or leaves them of a faint amber - 

 coloured yellow. See how they lengthen their 



