312 TOILERS IN THE SEA. 



of mementoes, which every one brings home from the 

 sea-side. Mingled with shells, bits of sea-weed, star- 

 fish, zoophytes, &c., is always the inevitable sea- 

 mat, and yet how few trouble themselves about the 

 animals that constructed those tiny dwellings, and 

 inhabited them, increasing and multiplying till the 

 little one became a thousand, and the single cell a 

 great colony. It may be somewhat conducive to its 

 popularity that it has a pleasant odour when fresh 

 out of the water, which some compare to that of 

 violets, others to bergamot, or the mixed odour of 

 roses and geraniums. Sir John Dalzell states that 

 he has known no less than ten thousand young 

 embryos to have been liberated from a single speci- 

 men of this sea-mat, during the course of three hours. 

 Growing upon, and attached to, this species, a much 

 smaller one should be carefully sought for (Bugula 

 avicularia), because it is often found in that position, 

 and because it will exhibit those curious bird's-head 

 processes, to which allusion has been made. They 

 will be dead, as a matter of course, and all the snap- 

 ping over, but the birds' heads will still remain, and 

 imagination will readily picture them, in all the snap- 

 ping energy of their original vitality. 



Another characteristic Polyzoon will be found 

 encrusting tufts of red sea-weeds, sometimes com- 

 pletely coating them, and bristling with long setae 

 ( Membranipora pilosa] (fig. 63). " Its little cells have 



