8 Prof. VV. C. M'lntosh on certain 



the tubes of wliich (fig. 2) are often stranded after storms in 

 vast multitudes, for instance on the West Sands ; indeed, so 

 conspicuous are they occasionally that more than once the 

 question has been asked if they could not be advantac^eously 

 employed for fertilizing- the soil. The rounded tubes arc 

 fabricated by the annelids near low- water mark, and show a 

 lining of the abundant secretion from the largely developed 

 glandular tissue {tinsu chjpeal of Claparede), to which many 

 shell-fragments, grains of sand, spines of heart -urchins, anil 

 similar bodies are fixed. No special regularity marks the 

 attachment of the grains of sand or shell-fragments, the larger 

 being generally laid flatly on the surface, while the smaller 

 often overlap or are imbricated ; in any case the tenacious 

 secretion is closely covered. The tubes are deeply sunk in 

 the sand (a foot or more), and sometimes curved round a 

 stone, the ends alone reaching the surface. Each is furnished 

 with two fan-shaped plates, the edges of which have a 

 remarkable fringe of filaments, which, though they have not 

 the beauty of the smooth processes of the species figured in 

 the ' Challenger,' yet form a complex and gracefully branched 

 tuft. The filaments are densely coated with foreign struc- 

 tures, such as shell-fragments and sand-grains, generally of a 

 somewhat elongated form, and fixed by the tenacious cement, 

 which shows cell-like outlines, both ovoid and elliptical, the 

 exact nature of which is uncertain. Occasionally the cylin- 

 drical tube extends beyond the filaments and a new tuft is 

 formed at the tip, ])robably after an irruption of sand has 

 buried the free end beneath the surface. 



When the animal is removed from its dwelling it does not 

 resume })ossession of it, but fabricates a new one (by night), 

 making ])rogress, according to Sir J. Dalyell, of one or two 

 inches daily. It likewise avails itself of the side of a glass 

 vessel so as to economize labour. The busy tentacles soon 

 sweep the vessel of its sand-grains and arrange them by aid 

 of the secretion to form the tube and fringes, a careful 

 account of the fornnition of both having recently been 

 given by iMr. Arnold Watson^. As Sir J. Dalyell said of 

 an allied s[)ecics : — ''Nothing is more surprising than the 

 attention of so humble an artist being diiecteil towauls such 

 a variety of operations at the same moment. Many tentacles 

 are reaching after materials, many collecting, many bearing 

 them to the orifice, some quitting their hold, others recovering 

 the load, while the architect itself seems occuined in kneading 

 masses in its mouth, disgorging them successively, or in 

 ]ioli.sliing the rude workmanship resulting from its labours. "f 

 It, moreover, (piits its tube when dying. 



• .loiini. lltiv. Micros. Soc. 185)1. 

 t Tow. ("iviit. ii. pi». r.»"). H»i>. 



