THE SANDY CREEPLET. 
301 
be two species of the same uncommon genus, having so 
many points in common, found in so close proximity as the 
Devon and Cornwall coasts, and yet there are glaring dis- 
crepancies between Mr. R. Q. Couch’s published descrip- 
tions and the characters of our animal. He describes the 
surface as “ glandular,” the form as frequently “ contracted 
to an hour-glass shape,” and as being very versatile ; the 
habit as sluggish, and slow to change ; the tentacles as 
“ darker at the extremities than at the base ; ” not one of 
which particulars do our specimens contirm. 
My first personal acquaintance with the species I owed 
to Mr. Holdsworth, who dredged several colonies in twelve 
fathoms, ofi" the Ore Stone, near Torquay, in October, 1858, 
where fiu’ther researches show it to be quite common. They 
were of the variety linearis, affixed to fragments of slate 
and old valves of Cardium rusticum, twenty or thirty 
polypes on each, nmning in sinuous bands from half a line 
to three lines apart in the series. The colonies meandered 
over both surfaces of the fragments. 
One of these colonies my friend kindly gave to me, and 
it has lived now ten montlis with me. The polypes are 
by no means sluggish, but are continually opening and 
closing with considerable vivacity. When eompletely con- 
traeted, each polype is a cylindrical button, with the summit 
round and depressed in the centre. As expansion proceeds, 
the centre evolves, and the summit becomes nearly flat, 
with the twelve or fourteen strongly marked marginal 
ridges radiating from the central orifice. The central aper- 
ture enlarges, and the white tips of the tentacles are seen 
protruding, and presently the tentaeles themselves, blunt 
and pellueid white, which soon arch outwardly. 
They feed readily on raw flesh or earthworms, but will 
take only very minute fragments. These, however light 
their contact, cause the tentacles to retract ; but if the 
