276 CAMPONTIAD^. 



an erect attitude at the roots of the lesser Fuci. The tuhe is con- 

 structed of fine mud cemented by a glutinous secretion, and lined 

 within by a thin glutinous skin ; and if the worm is removed, and 

 left in clean sea-water, it will, after a short interval, be found to have 

 enveloped its body with a similar pellicle. The motions of the tenant 

 in the tube are very lively ; it withdraws on the slightest agitation 

 of the water ; and after its terror has subsided, it again pushes the 

 feathery tentacula from beyond the aperture, and expands them in a 

 wide circle, keeping them very steadily at rest ; but when extracted 

 from the tube, it lies very helpless. The tentacula are then stretched 

 forwards, and generally held so approximated that they form a 

 brush, like a hair pencil, on the head, having however the apices of 

 the filaments always recurved or hooked. Sometimes the two tufts 

 are a little separated even in this state ; but from the number and 

 closeness of the filaments, the division of each tuft into three cihated 

 branches cannot be detected, unless they are lightly compressed 

 between thin plates of glass. 



Fam. XVIII. CAMPONTIAD-ffi. 



Campontiens, M.-Edwards in Lam. Anim. s. Vert. 2de edit. v. 514. 



50. CAMPONTIA*. 



Campontia, Johnston, Zool. Journ. iii. 235. 



Char. Body cylindrical, naked, annulose : mouth with exsertile 

 corneous mandibles : two prolegs on the anal, and two on the first 

 segment. 



1 . C. eruciformis. 



Campontia eruciformis, Johnston in Zool. Journ. iii. 325, and iv. 421 ; 

 Loud. Mag. Nat. Hist. viii. 1 79. f. 18. And. ^ M.-Edwards, Liti. 

 de la France, ii. 290, and M.-Edw. in Lam. Anim. s. Vert. 2de edit, 

 v. 575. 



Hab. The sea-shore between tide-marks, where it may be found, at 

 all seasons, at the roots of sea-weeds and corallines, in pools left 

 by the recess of the tide. 



Besc. Body 4 lines long, cylindrical, of twelve subequal segments 

 (exclusive of the head) of a clear, faint, water-green colour, smooth, 

 and somewhat corneous. Head distinct, brown, subquadrate, spa- 

 ringly ciHate on the margins. Eyes two, black, remote, not mar- 

 ginal, placed towards the front. Antennae two, distant, very short, 



* From (ca/xaros, labor, and Trorros, mare — a sea trouble, probably intended to 

 express the breach it makes in our natural classifications of the Annelides, — ^just as 

 a " trouble," in the miner's language, breaks through the continuity of his work- 

 able seam. Let us, however, rememl)er the axiom of Pallas: — "Nihil Natura 

 imperfectum condidit, quantiimvis videri possit anomalutn." 



