WORMS. 267 



mentor than Dr. Williams, -whose admirable " Report on 

 the British Annelida " I have just cited. 



Before we dismiss our little Phyllodoce to its home in 

 the aquarium, we must try to get a sight of its pretty 

 mouth. The Worms are somewhat wayward in displaying 

 this part of their charms, sometimes exposing it at in- 

 tervals of a second or two for very many times in succes- 

 sion, at others sullenly keeping it closed ; and no efforts 

 that I am aware of on our part will induce the display ; 

 we must await their pleasure. It is, in fact, a turning of 

 the throat inside out. In most of the Worms the head is 

 minute ; and what seems to be the mouth is but the orifice 

 from which the throat or proboscis is everted. In the 

 Phijllodoces this organ is a great muscular sac, hi some 

 species equalling in length one-fourth of the whole body. 



Ha ! there it appears ! What a chasm yawns in the 

 under side of the head, as the interior begins rapidly to 

 protrude, turning inside out as it comes forth, like a living 

 stocking, until it assumes the form of an enormous (com- 

 paratively enormous, of course,) pear-shaped bag, the 

 surface of which is beset with a multitude of secreting 

 warts or glands, somewhat like the papillae which stud the 

 tongue in higher animals ! The extremity, which is per- 

 forated, is surrounded by a muscle, by means of which it 

 contracts forcibly on whatever it is applied to, and thus 

 holds it firmly, while the re-inversion of the sac drags it, if 

 suitable, into the body to be digested. 



But this huge proboscis disappears as rapidly and as 

 wonderfully as it was revealed. Commencing at what is 

 now the outer extremity, which is quickly turned-in, the 

 whole swiftly returns to its cavity in the inverse order to 

 that in which it was extruded ; and now that it is all en- 

 gulphed, we marvel that so vast a sac can be packed away 

 in so slender a case. 



In this instance the armour of the proboscis is feeble ; 

 but we have species which are very elaborately armed. 



