232 NATURAL HISTORY OF OUR SHORES 



The one found on our shores is Balanoglossus sarniensis, 

 or, more properly, Ptychordera sarniensis. (Its specific 

 name is from the first specimens having been obtained 

 from Guernsey, the classical name of which island is 

 Sarnia.) 



It is, as I have said, of wormlike form, about thirty 

 inches in length and half-an-inch in diameter. The anterior 

 portion, for about eight inches, is either orange or yellow 

 in colour. The next portion, for about eight or ten inches, 

 is green, the remainder creamy white. The orange- 

 coloured portion is of fairly firm texture but all the re- 

 mainder is exceedingly fragile, being little more than a 

 semi -gelatinous membrane, gorged with the sand which 

 the animal takes in feeding. 



At its anterior end is a conical proboscis, at the base of 

 which is the mouth. Then follows a collar, about half-an- 

 inch wide, with the upper edge frilled and projecting., then 

 the part which bears the openings to the gills. 



It feeds in the same manner as the earth-worm that is, 

 as it progresses through the sand or gravel the portion 

 of this which in the ordinary process of boring would be 

 pushed aside is taken in by the mouth, and is left behind 

 at the posterior end of the body, the organic matter which 

 may have been mixed with it having served as food. 



Balanoglossus has a peculiar and powerful odour, closely 

 resembling that of iodoform. 



Often, when digging in shell gravel for Synapta, etc., I 

 have been apprised of the proximity of Balanglossus by 

 this odour, which pervades the sand for a considerable 

 distance, several feet, if not yards, around it. 



After touching a specimen this odour clings so persistently 

 to the hands as to be appreciable for days, repeated 

 washings notwithstanding. 



Owing to its fragility it is very difficult to obtain the 

 animal unbroken. I have only succeeded in doing this 



