TUBE-MAKING CRUSTACEANS. 385 



cut the threads whereby those shell-fish suspend 

 themselves, so as to make them fall into the mud ; 

 and that they then devour them. 



Not the least remarkable circumstance connected 

 with the history of the Amphipods, is that some of 

 them construct tubes, somewhat after the manner of 

 the caddis-worms among insects. 



" Some years since/' observes Mr. Spence Bate, " I 

 had in a glass-case a few Amphipod Crustaceans in 

 sea- water, with a little weed. After a short time, an 

 hour or two, I was surprised to find that one of these 

 small creatures had managed to bend a portion of a 

 leaf of green Ulva upon itself, and cement the same 

 into a tube-like case, in which it lived, putting out 

 its head and antennae only; upon being disturbed 

 at one extremity, it would quickly turn within its 

 abode, and protrude its head at the other. I thought 

 it curious at the time, but pursued the subject no 

 farther, until more recent and longer-extended oppor- 

 tunities showed that the above was by no means an 

 isolated instance, but that a large and well-marked 

 group of these animals enjoy this power of construct- 

 ing for themselves temporary residences ; while an- 

 other, equally distinguishable, dwell in abodes that 

 they have made by excavating channels in clay, mud, 

 or even wood." 



When engaged in prosecuting these observations, 

 Mr. Bate kept in a small tank several specimens of 

 Amphitoe rubricata dredged up at the east end of 

 Plymouth Breakwater. " These varied in their ages, 

 from the very young to the well-advanced adult, all 

 of which, in the course of a short time, fabricated for 



