Dr. W. C. MIntosh on the Boring of certain Annelids. 277 
now compelled to make a few remarks on the subject at this 
stage, on account of the publication of the above-mentioned 
paper in the ‘Annals of Natural History’ for April of this 
year (1868). In the latter publication the author states that 
“Dr. M‘Intosh was the only observer at Dundee who expressed 
a belief that these Annelids perforate rocks other than carbonate 
of lime. He said he had seen aluminous shale so bored; but 
I think he had other excavations in mind, such as Annelids 
will make in the semisolid silt filling cracks in shale, or else that 
he has since seen reason to change his opinion; for he has not 
produced any such specimen of shale, although then challenged 
to do so. I submit that the opinion as to aluminous shale, 
unsupported by any chemical test or specimen, and confessedly 
only casually noticed, should not be of any weight in the 
balance against the facts as to the exclusive erosion of lime- 
stone which are above recorded.” I had for the time forgotten 
the subject till I saw this paper (and for the first time its 
challenge) in the ‘ Annals ;’ yet, on referring to my notes on 
Leucodore ciliata, made several years ago, I find that it bores 
not only in aluminous shale, but in a material, in a chemical 
sense, even more impenetrable. 
Boring and burrowing are very common features in the 
British Annelida. The majority are fitted chiefly for perfo- 
rating sand or sandy mud, such as the Lumbrict, Nephthys, 
Nerine, Cirratulus, Nereis, Eteone, G'lycera, Arenicola, Scali- 
bregma, Ammotrypane, Ophelia, Travisia, Aricia, Terebella, 
Sabella, Mea, and others; and the modes in which they 
pursue this their daily occupation vary greatly. Glyccra and 
Nephthys especially disappear with rapidity amongst the sand 
by boring with their proboscides, the former passing its elon- 
gated organ through a considerable space in a single thrust. 
Eteone dashes through the water in ever-varying screw-coils, 
and carries its snout with equal facility through sand; and 
the motions of Ammotrypane aulogaster are even more vigorous, 
especially as regards penetration of the latter. The efforts, 
again, of Scalibregma, Ophelia limacina, Travisia, and Mea 
are less violent; but they easily penetrate the same semisolid 
medium. Some, such as Nereis pelagica and Dumerilit, occa- 
sionally occupy galleries in the stems of softened Laminarie ; 
while Hediste (Nereis) diversicolor bores in vast numbers in 
the peat of Perrelle Bay, in Guernsey, and more sparingly in 
casual pieces of the same material on the eastern shores of 
North Uist. Several delight to bore in muddy clay, such as 
Eunice, Lumbrinereis, and Notocirrus. Many species occur in 
galleries between the layers of shale and sandstone, and in the 
cracks of granite, gneiss, and other rocks, amidst sandy mud, 
