to 
Giiwe Pik “x2 Vik. 
SALT-WATER LEECHES. 
THE sea has its leeches as well as the marshes; but the sea-leeches 
are always found as parasites, and they offer many other points 
of difference to the fresh-water blood-suckers. In the first place, 
their skin, instead of being thin and delicate, like the ordinary 
leech, is thick and coriaceous. They are strongly and comfortably 
clothed, doubtless that they may the better withstand the changes 
of temperature, and the incessant motion of the waters of the sea. 
They cannot glide so quickly and so gracefully through their 
watery world as their relations of the marshes; they can but 
contract and expand themselves, and with that modicum of motion 
they must rest content. And, moreover, the two species are very 
different in their shapes. 
The marine leech is scientifically termed A/bzone, which is 
synonymous with Poztobdella. There is also another varicty, 
which is called Branchellion. The body of the albione, as may 
be seen from the drawing, is very rough—covered with spiny 
projections. It has no appearance of branchial appendages ; 
these organs are not required, for the leech breathes through its 
skin. This is not the case with the branchellion: its breathing 
apparatus is visible, being arranged down each side of the body 
in two undulous fringes. The albione is generally found attached 
to the body of the skate, and is therefore called by the fishermen 
“the skate-sucker.” The branchellion takes up its abode on the 
body of the electric eel. Each end of its purse-like body is furnished 
with a sucker, by which the creature makes itself fast to the fish. 
Instinct causes it to attach itself to the roots of the fins, the neigh- 
bourhood of the eyes, or the opening of the gills, for at these places 
there is the greatest number of blood-vessels, and here the skin 
is thinner and more easily pierced. The marine leeches do not 
make the incision with the same instrument as the medical leeches, 
‘) 
