ROUGH HOUND. 15 



round some tuft of flexible coral or sca-wecd. The case thus 

 becomes drawn from the body, and the remaining tendrils serve 

 to bind it to the substance to which it is attached; to which, 

 with a curling and contracting motion it becomes bound very 

 firmly. I have seen where this action has caused the whole to 

 assume the appearance of a nest, with the treasure well con- 

 cealed within it, and of such a one the following is a particular 

 description: — The main support of the whole mass was the flexible 

 coral called Gorgonia vei'rucosa, about the branches of which 

 the tendrils Avere entwined. The case still held the embryo, 

 unhatched, within it; and the tendrils were so embedded and 

 matted with the branches, as well as with the twisted threads of 

 Sc7-tHlarice growing on the same stone, as to shew that the prin- 

 cipal portion of the Goryo7iia (sea fern) and the whole of the 

 Scrtularice had obtained their growth since the e^sr-case had 

 been deposited. There was also attached to this egg-case a 

 pecten (shell -fish) about three lines in length, some serpula? 

 (triquctrcc) and anomire {unc/ues), and a considerable portion of 

 one side of the case was covered Avith a thin coating of alcvo- 

 nium. This Avas about the middle of December, and the 

 coldness of such a season may explain the long delay Avhich 

 appears to have arisen in the development and escape of the 

 embryo. But that it is not usually accomplished in a short 

 time appears from the fact, that some egg-cases placed in pools 

 of the rocks exposed to the free access of the sea, Avere not 

 dcA-eloped in several Aveeks, although they had made sufficient 

 advancement to shcAv that it Avould be accomplished in due 

 season. 



There are four slits at the corners of the egg-case, Avhich have 

 attracted the notice of naturalists, but the use of which has 

 not yet received a satii^factory explanation. One supposition 

 is, that they serve to admit water to the embryo within the 

 case; but on trial I have found that the presence of even a 

 small quantity of sca-Avater at an early stage of its existence 

 is fatal to life. Another supposition is — that they serve to 

 alloAV for the groAvth of the embryo by jn'oviding a means 

 of escape for any fluid that might accumulate in the vacant 

 space, and interfere Avith the growth of the enclosed young. 

 Their use is at least obscure, as I have not been able to dis- 

 cover any corresponding slit in the egg-case of its kindred 



