VERMES. 65 







easy victim. It is greedy after what is readily got. Portions of mussel 

 are acceptable, and then the mouth, distending widely, gradually absorbs 

 them. If the valves of a small shell be sundered, the animal fastens 

 on one of them, drags it away, and consumes the contents at leisure. 

 The dimensions of the intestinal canal admit the absorption of a great 

 quantity of food, whereby the subject appears very different on repletion 

 from its aspect under abstinence. 



Many other circumstances, combined with the preceding facts, prove 

 the necessity of preserving specimens from their earlier stages. 



A small and slender animal, involved in a knot, lay among some 

 corallines ; when removed to a moistened glass slider, it extricated the 

 head, and unfolded the body, now extending three inches by about only 

 half a line in breadth. Two black specks, of considerable size, were ex- 

 posed amidst the white of the anterior extremity under the microscope ; 

 the cleft, forming two lips, was sensible, and the whole body appeared 

 striated longitudinally with lighter and darker lines. Thus it was seen 

 in October, Plate VIII. fig. 3 ; head, enlarged, fig. 4. In three months 

 it extended five inches. At this period I observed, for the first time, 

 that it was wont to enter the tube of the Amphitnte ventilabmm, and 

 concluded that it devoured the tenant. This conjecture was strengthened 

 by the speedy disappearance of several of these animals from the vessel. 

 Other food, likewise supplied, was dragged down among the mud and 

 consumed. 



Owing to the great difference in the appearance of this specimen 

 from adults, I had supposed it another species of the Gordius maximus, 

 the one being of a uniform purple colour, but that under view, distinctly 

 striped as a ribband. Some months later, however, their identity seemed 

 probable. At the period of a second delineation, half a year subsequent 

 to the first, the specimen extended twelve inches. Its growth had been 

 rapid. Fig. 5. To this its voracity greatly contributed. The anterior 

 surface broadening much after a copious meal, exposed lighter lines ; and 

 in fifteen months from the date of the acquisition of the specimen, they 

 became very conspicuous on feeding. Sometimes such distension attend- 

 ing a greedy repast, made me apprehensive that the body would burst. 



i 



