nS 



BY THE DEEP SEA. 



changes to blue-green shot with purple and olive gleams. 

 Its hsad is rounded, and is distinguished by the tentacles 

 about it. This species attains a length of over twenty inches, 

 but there is, among several others, a small intensely-green 

 form (Phyllodoce viridis) about two inches long, to be found 

 among the roots of weeds on low rocks. As this is very 

 slender and of thin texture, it can be well examined under the 

 one-inch power of the microscope, when the rowing action of 

 the gill-leaves, and the extrusion and withdrawal of the 

 bundles of crystal bristles will be seen. 



Another family of these tubeless worms is represented in 

 the Sanguine Eunice (Eunice sanguined), of which specimens 

 may be found a couple of feet in length, and of considerable 

 thickness. It is green in colour, but 

 the gill-plates are of a glowing blood- 

 red. One edge of these plates is 

 cut up after the fashion of a comb ; 

 and its head is ornamented by fine 

 antennae. M. Quatrefages has left 

 a graphic description of this worm 

 under the microscope, and as that 

 account has not been greatly hack- 

 neyed, I reproduce part of it here. 

 He says : " We have just placed upon 

 the stage [of the microscope] a little 

 trough filled with sea-water, in which 

 an Eunice is disporting itself. See 

 how indignant it is at its captivity ; 

 how its numerous rings contract, 

 elongate, twist into a spiral coil, and 

 at every movement emit flashes of 

 splendour in which all the tints of 

 the prism are blended in the brightest metallic reflections. 

 It is impossible, in the midst of this tumultuous agitation, to 

 distinguish anything definitely. But it is more quiet now. 



PEARLY NEREIS. 



