112 LIFE BY THE SEASHORE. 



therefore, mourn the untimely decease of innumerable 

 worms, for it is only a portion of the house which has 

 been sacrificed to the force of the breakers ; and the worms 

 are tireless " masons," and can soon repair the damage. To 

 find them living we must seek those sandy stretches which 

 sometimes occur among the shore rocks. Here we find the 

 tubes sticking up vertically from the sand, with their stiff 

 fringe and about an inch of tube above the level of the 

 sand. It is easy to imitate the action of the breakers and 

 pull up the tube ; but the prudent worm has learnt its 

 lesson well, promptly retreats to the bottom of its tube, and 

 leaves you with a few inches of empty tube in your hand. 

 The worms often measure as much as ten inches in length, 

 and the tubes are always longer, often much longer, than the 

 worm. It is in consequence a somewhat difficult process 

 to obtain a complete specimen, especially when we add to 

 the other difficulties the fact that the worms are exceedingly 

 fragile, and often rupture at a touch. One habit, however, 

 aids the process of extrication. The worms show a marked 

 preference for rock crevices, and in jointed rocks often 

 occupy the widest of the joints. Such jointed rocks are 

 often easily split into blocks, and in this way, with the help 

 of a geological hammer, it is sometimes possible to get very 

 fine specimens. There are a considerable number of Tere- 

 bellids to be found on the shore rocks, and many of these 

 do not burrow so deeply as Terebella conchilega, and may 

 be more easily obtained, but we shall confine our description 

 to this handsome species. 



Let us suppose, then, that your excavations have been 

 crowned with success, and an intact specimen of the desired 

 worm lies before you (see Fig. 37). The colour varies, but 

 is often a beautiful rosy tint, the tufted gills being a bright 

 scarlet. The head bears numerous long tenta:ular filaments 

 like those of Cirratulus, which in life are protruded from 

 the opening of the tube. They collect the sand grains and 

 other particles which when mixed with secretion form the 

 tube, and are sheltered and perhaps protected by the stiff 

 fringe of the tube. The first segment (peristomium) forms 

 a bilobed lower lip which is used as a trowel to plaster 

 the tube. As might be expected from the tube-dwelling 

 habit the gills are confined to the anterior segments, where 



