No. 1.] THE DEVELOPMENT OF BALANOGLOSSUS. 5 
attempt. The presence of the adults is easily discovered by 
the large castings thrown out on the surface of the sand flat. 
These are, for the Bahama form, very large—as thick as a 
man’s finger. When the low tide has left the sand flats com- 
paratively bare these coiled excrementa are conspicuous, and 
in most cases the posterior end of the worm itself protrudes 
from the surface as much, at times, as aninch. If the sand 
be jarred or the worm touched, the end of the body is quickly 
drawn out of sight, and after this any attempt made to dig 
the worm will not be successful. If, however, the spade is 
thrust rapidly into the sand before the worm has been dis- 
turbed it is easy to cut off from six inches to a foot of the 
hind end of the body, but impossible to get more of the worm. 
It is easy in this way to get large numbers of the posterior 
ends of the worms, but this is not very satisfactory. 
Guided by a fortunate accident, and combining its data with 
observations obtained from the young worms kept it the aqua- 
rium, I found, but only at the end of my stay in Bimini, a 
method to obtain the anterior end of the worm. 
It was noticed that the young worms in the aquarium made 
a definite tube in which they lived and which opened at the sur- 
face of the sand, presumably that water might be drawn down 
the tube. It was noticed further that if these holes were 
covered over they were uncovered again or new ones made. 
The conclusion was probably to be drawn that the adults also 
had holes opening to the surface. Reéxamination of the sand 
flats showed the truth of the deduction, and by rapidly thrust- 
ing in the spade obliquely near these holes the anterior end of 
the worms could often be cut off. It happened that the first 
attempt was made at low tide late in the afternoon, and enough 
worms were obtained to supply material for several days. The 
next attempt was made at low tide in the morning and not a 
single worm was obtained by repeating the process. Again 
and again, attempts repeated morning after morning were 
unsuccessful. The conclusion seemed to follow that the 
worms were not to be found at the top of the tubes during 
the morning, but that late in the afternoon they approached 
the surface. I left when this much seemed clear, but Dr. 
