94 LIFE BY THE SEASHORE. 



exceedingly beautiful both in form and colour, and the 

 habits of the tube-builders make them very interesting pets. 

 Although all are furnished with bristles, which are often 

 large and strong, yet most are greatly relished as food by 

 the carnivorous inhabitants of the ocean. This fact every 

 fisherman knows, and the voracity with which many fish 

 will take a worm bait explains clearly enough why it is 

 that the worms should display so much ingenuity in seeking 

 shelter. Often this shelter is of their own making, as 

 witness the great variety of tubes, from the simple jelly 

 envelope of Siphonostoma to the elegant sand tubes of 

 Pectinaria, and the limy coils of Serpula. Other worms, 

 like Nereis itself, form irregular burrows of sand and weed ; 

 or seek shelter in rock crevices, roots of weed, and empty 

 shells ; or bury themselves deeply in mud and sand. One 

 species of Nereis lives inside shells inhabited by the large 

 hermit-crab, and thus probably gets not only shelter but 

 scraps of its host's food. In what respect the hermit is the 

 gainer is less clear. Some other forms live among the 

 prickly spines of sea-urchins and starfishes, in this way no 

 doubt obtaining protection from soft -skinned foes. So 

 varied are the habitats of the worms that to the question, 

 Where should one look for them 1 ? the answer may be, 

 Almost anywhere. In sand and mud, under stones and 

 overhanging rocks, among seaweed, wherever shelter and 

 food are to be obtained, the worms may be found. At the 

 end of this and the following chapters will be found tables 

 designed to aid the beginner in naming the common shore 

 worms, but many are not easy to identify. 



The first example is one which is, practically speaking, 

 common everywhere on the shore. On lifting up stones 

 on the shore rocks you are certain sooner or later to uncover 

 a little creature about one to two inches in length, which in 

 general appearance is very like a " slater," but which when 

 disturbed wriggles away with a lateral movement of the 

 body which is quite characteristic. It is not very worm- 

 like in appearance, for the rings of the body are covered 

 by flat plates, or elytra, but the bristles which project at the 

 sides of the body quite clearly indicate its real nature. An 

 animal displaying these characters is tolerably certain to be 

 a species of Polynoe, and the commonest species on the 



