ROW THE YOUNG ANNELIDS ARE PRODUCED. 157 



veal the true character of the organ. No sooner 

 does the creature wish to seize its food than this so- 

 called gizzard is at once turned inside out, in which 

 condition it protrudes from the mouth like a great 

 proboscis, and the teeth, which were before concealed 

 in the interior of the cavity, now become external, 

 and display as formidable an assortment of rasps, 

 files, knives, saws, hooks, or crooked fangs, as any one 

 could wish to see. Let us suppose them, when in 

 this condition, plunged into the body of some poor 

 helpless victim, while at the same moment the pro- 

 boscis is rapidly inverted and withdrawn ; the prey 

 thus seized is at the same instant swallowed, and at 

 once plunged into a gulf where all struggles are un- 

 availing, there to be bruised, and crushed, and sucked 

 at leisure/ 



There is a curious fact in connection with these 

 Annelids which is too interesting to be omitted here. 

 I allude to the wonderful manner in which their 

 young are produced by a process that may be called 

 ' sprouting/ 



This invariably takes place in the segment im- 

 mediately preceding the terminal one. When a new 

 animal is about to be formed, the reproductive seg- 

 ment swells, and after a certain time the infant worm 

 is seen growing from the tail of its parent. When 

 sufficiently developed, the offspring detaches itself, 

 and starts life on its own account. Sometimes 

 before the elder born Annelid is fully formed, the 



