Dr. W. C. Mcintosh on the Boring of certain Annelids. 211 



now compelled to make a few remarks on the subject at this 

 stage, on account of the publication of the above-mentioned 

 paper in the ^Annals of Natural History' for April of this 

 year (1868). In the latter publication the author states that 

 " Dr. Mcintosh was the only observer at Dundee who expressed 

 a belief that these Annelids perforate rocks other than carbonate 

 of lime. He said he had seen aluminous shale so bored ; but 

 I think he had other excavations in mind, such as Annelids 

 will make in the semisolid silt filling cracks in shale, or else that 

 he has since seen reason to change his opinion ; for he has not 

 produced any such specimen of shale, although then challenged 

 to do so. I submit that the opinion as to aluminous shale, 

 unsupported by any chemical test or specimen, and confessedly 

 only casually noticed, should not be of any weight in the 

 balance against the facts as to the exclusive erosion of lime- 

 stone which are above recorded." I had for the time forgotten 

 the subject till I saw this paper (and for the first time its 

 challenge) in the ^ Annals ;' yet, on referring to my notes on 

 Leucodore ciliata^ made several years ago, I find that it bores 

 not only in aluminous shale, but in a material, in a chemical 

 sense, even more impenetrable. 



Boring and burrowing are very common features in the 

 British Annelida. The majority are fitted chiefly for perfo- 

 rating sand or sandy mud, such as the Lumhricij Nephthys, 

 Nerine^ CirratuluSj Nereis ^ Eteone^ Olycera^ Arenicola^ Scali- 

 hregma^ Ammotrypane^ Ophelia^ Travisia^ Aricia^ Terebella^ 

 Scd)ellaj MceUj and others ; and the modes in which they 

 pursue this their daily occupation vary greatly. Glycera and 

 NepJithys especially disappear with rapidity amongst the sand 

 by boring with their proboscides, the former passing its elon- 

 gated organ through a considerable space in a single thrust. 

 Eteone dashes through the water in ever-varying screw-coils, 

 and carries its snout with equal facility through sand ; and 

 the motions oi Ammotrypane aulogaster are even more vigorous, 

 especially as regards penetration of the latter. The efforts, 

 again, of Scalihregmaj Ophelia Umacina^ Travisia^ and Mcea 

 are less violent ; but they easily penetrate the same semisolid 

 medium. Some, such as Nereis pelagica and Bumerilii^ occa- 

 sionally occupy galleries in the stems of softened Laminarim ; 

 while Hediste (Nereis) diversicolor bores in vast numbers in 

 the peat of Perrelle Bay, in Guernsey, and more sparingly in 

 casual pieces of the same material on the eastern shores of 

 North Uist. Several delight to bore in muddy clay, such as 

 Eunice^ Lumhrinereisj and Notocirrus. Many species occur in 

 galleries between the layers of shale and sandstone, and in the 

 cracks of granite, gneiss, and other rocks, amidst sandy mud, 



