756 



THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



[Milford on-Sea 



Photo by W. Saville-Kent. F Z S.] 



SEA-WORMS, OR NEREIDS 



Their innumerable ''''false feet " impart to them a. centipede-like aspect 



most brilliant prismatic 

 tints. 



The TUBE-DWELLING 

 WORMS are note-worthy for 

 the elegant and often beau- 

 tifully coloured flower-like 

 gill-tuft with which the head 

 is crowned. Its separate 

 filaments are clothed with 

 vibrating hairs, which create 

 currents bringing food-par- 

 ticles to the mouth- In those 

 forms which build up a hard 

 calcareous dwelling-tube, one 

 of the gill-filaments is usually 

 so modified as to constitute 

 a stopper-like organ, where- 

 with the animal, on retreating 

 into its domicile, can effectu- 



ally bar out the ingress of in- 

 truders. In some members of the group the gill-tufts are elegantly branched and supplemented 

 by long, simple, thread-like filaments, that are thrust out to long distances in every direction 

 both for food and the materials required for the further lengthening and enlargement of the tube. 

 The LEECHES differ essentially from the Bristle-worms in the absence of bristles or sup- 

 plementary appendages, in the presence of an adhesive sucking-disk at the posterior and some- 

 times also the anterior extremity, and on their well-known blood-sucking propensities. While the 

 MEDICINAL and so-called HORSE-LEECHES inhabit fresh water, some, more especially in tropical 

 countries, infest the moist jungles and 'scrubs in vast numbers, and are among the most actively 

 aggressive pests with which the traveler has to contend. A few leeches also inhabit the sea, 

 preying upon the skate and other fishes. The bodies of these marine species are cylindrical, with 

 a sucker at each extremity, and roughly corrugated or warted. 



The FLAT- WORMS embrace a large number of intestinal and other parasitic species, includ- 

 ing TAPE- WORMS, THREAD- 

 WORMS, LIVER-FLUKES, and 

 others. Among the free-living 

 non-parasitic members of this 

 group, the so-called INDIA- 

 RUBBER- WORM is remarkable 

 forthe extraordinaryelasticity 

 of its tissues. Black in hue, 

 it lives among rocks and sea- 

 weeds, and preys upon small 

 fishes and other organisms, 

 These being seized by the 

 suctorial mouth are unable to 

 effect their escape, the worm's 

 body being capable of stretch- 

 ing out to a length of 20 feet 

 or more, and "playing" the 

 captured victim like a living 



r . Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F. Z. S.] Wilford-on-Sea 



elastic fishing-line until its SEA-MICE 



es are exhausted. Worms, with remarkably irridescent hairs, which burrow in the sand 



