30 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [324] 



Under stones and decaying sea- weeds, near high-water mark, t\vo or 

 more kinds of small slender worms are usually found in great numbers 

 these differ widely from all those before mentioned, and are more nearly 

 related to the common earth-worms of the garden. One of these is white, 

 slender, and about an inch long, tapering to both ends. This is Halodil- 

 lus Wtoralis V., apparently forming a new genus allied to Encliytrceus . 

 Another is of about the same size, but rather longer and more slender, 

 and light red in color. It has a moniliform intestine, with a red blood- 

 vessel attached to it above and below. It belongs apparently to the 

 genus Clitellio, (C. irroratus V.) 



In addition to all these setigerous Annelids which have been enu- 

 merated, there are quite a number of worms to be found on the rocky 

 shores which are destitute of all these external appendages, and have 

 the surface of the body smooth and ciliated. There are two tribes of 

 such worms : in one of them the body is much elongated, and either 

 roundish, or flattened, and usually very changeable in form and cap- 

 able of great extension and contraction. These are known as Nemer- 

 teans ; most of them have a proboscis which they can dart out to a great 

 length. In the other group, known as Planarians, the body is broad, 

 short, and depressed, and often quite flat, and their internal structure 

 is quite different. 



One of the largest of the Nemerteans, the Meckelia ingens, (Plate XIX, 

 figs. 96, 96a,) is met with under stones where there is sand, but it be- 

 longs properly to the sandy shores. It is an enormous, smooth, flat worm, 

 yellowish, flesh-colored, or whitish, and sometimes grows to be ten or 

 twelve feet long and over an inch wide. The Meckelia rosea also occurs 

 occasionally in similar places. This is similar in form, but is smaller, less 

 flattened, and decidedly red in color. It is often covered by adhering 

 sand. Another species, belonging to the Nemerteans, is often found in 

 great abundance under stones from mid-tide to near high-water mark. 

 Many of them are often found coiled together in large clusters. This is 

 the Nemertes socialis ; it is very slender or filiform, and often five or six 

 inches long when extended. Its color is dark ash-brown or blackish, a 

 little lighter beneath, and it has three or four eyes in a longitudinal 

 group on each side of the head. Another larger species, apparently 

 belonging to the genus Cerebratulus, but not sufficiently studied while 

 living, is also abundant under stones. It is much stouter and is usually 

 dark olive-green, brownish-green, or greenish-black in color, but a little 

 lighter below and at the borders of the head. Several other small Ne- 

 merteans occur under similar circumstances. In the pools, creeping over 

 and among the algae and hydroids, a yellowish or light orange-colored 

 species, one or two inches long, is often met with. This species secretes 

 an unusual amount of mucus, which is, perhaps, connected with its 

 climbing habits, and I have on this account named it Polinia glutinosa V., 

 (Plate XIX, fig. 97.) It varies in the number of its eyes, according to 

 its age, but they are always grouped in oblique clusters as in the figure. 



