134 LUMBRIOUS. 
The colour of the Cirratulus is wholly reddish, sometimes tolerably 
vivid ; or it is brownish, and apparently variegated, from the quantity 
of mud absorbed. 
. Much of the appearance of the animals seems dependent on age, 
size, and the place they inhabit. Their natural and favourite dwelling 
is the mudy fissures of rocks, under tufts of marie vegetable pro- 
ducts, considerably above low-water, or where protected by any other 
soft covering. They are distributed very profusely throughout Scotland, 
but I have found none among sand. While the animal lurks in retreat, 
its cirri are spread like so many minute worms over the neighbouring 
surface. 
A slight glutinous secretion exudes from the body. 
The Cirratulus retreats from the light. If kept in a white saucer, 
covered with a shell or a stone, it will creep out at night ; or, by filling 
the vessel containing it so high that the tips of the cirri cannot reach the 
surface of the water, it will abandon its concealment, and crawl up the 
side, thus affording a satisfactory view of its form to the observer. But 
if forcibly removed, the whole creature contracts into a confused bunch, 
preventing sufficient inspection of the parts. 
Though the animal is seen under considerable diversity of aspect, 
Iam unable to pronounce any of numerous specimens as belonging to 
different species. 
After a specimen had been preserved throughout winter, a number 
of what I conjectured to be ova, appeared in its vessel in May, and ten 
days subsequently, many very minute vermiculi, not half a line m length. 
Unfortunately my observations were interrupted until July, when all 
had perished. 
Several years afterwards, three small specimens were lodged in a 
vessel on the 21st of June. In two days I found 300 or 400 very minute 
white opaque spherical:ova on the bottom, of considerable disparity in 
size. About 200 additional ova, of exactly the same character, appeared 
in the watch-glass, which had been transferred, along with the specimens, 
to a different vessel, fig. 3. There were now at least 500 ova in the 
watch-glass. 
