EAINBOW LEAF-WOBM. 157 



ten in number ; though, according to MM. Audouin and 

 Milne Edwards, 1 they sometimes amount to nearly five 

 hundred, and the worm has been found two feet in 

 length. The head is small, terminated by two pairs of 

 very minute antennae, but surrounded at what we may 

 call the neck by four pairs of rather long feelers (tenta- 

 cular cirri), with a fifth pair which are minute and 

 rudimentary. 



The colours are very beautiful. The leaf- like fins of 

 the sides, which are somewhat heart-shaped, are of a 

 yellowish green hue, occasionally clouded with black- 

 ish ; the middle portion of the back, which is exposed, 

 is of a rich brown, but flushed with the most glowing 

 iridescence of blue and purple ; while the whole under 

 parts are of a pearly flesh-colour. As it crawls over 

 the stones, it throws its body into the most elegant 

 lateral curves, while its suppleness and great length 

 cause it to cling close to the rock ; and thus its outline 

 takes the form of every projection and depression over 

 which it is wandering. 



When disturbed, and often without any apparent pro- 

 vocation, we see the under side of the tiny head rise 

 from the ground, swell out, and turn itself inside out, as 

 you turn a stocking, until a great pear-shaped bag is pro- 

 truded, fully eight times as long, and thrice as broad as 

 * Litt. de la France, ii. 223. 



