THE TEREBELLA. 25 



" That is the Terebella. His body is snug in the mud, 

 and he pokes his long arms out in this way for some pur- 

 pose or other, to me imknown." 



" Perhaps for respiration ?" 



" "Why do you say that ?" 



" Because it's safe. Whenever zoologists don't know the 

 function of an appendage, they are pretty sure to say it's 

 connected with respiration ; every unknown spot is an eye, 

 every appendage a gill, or subsidiary to gills ! However, 

 the Terebella has already been credited with branchial tufts, 

 in the shape of smaller and redder little worms beneath the 

 tentacles ; so never mind about function * — get the animal, 

 which I have never seen out of books." 



" He is hidden in the mud ; we must dig out the mud." 



"Whereupon my companion, tucking up his sleeve, plunges 

 his hand into the mass of sand and shells, and strews the 

 handful on a boulder, where we soon find the worm twisting; 

 itself into irritated convolutions, as if highly disapproving of 

 this treatment. "We pop him into a phial with some sand, 

 and he soon makes himself happy there. During this capture, 

 quick female eyes have discerned, and nimble fingers have 

 delicately secured, one of the loveliest of sea-charmers — an 

 Uolis, of about three-quarters of an inch in length, with 

 transparent body, tapering into the most graceful of tails (we 

 must call it a tail, although anatomists call it a foot), and 

 with rows of pink paj)ill8e on its back, formiug the most 

 elegant of ornaments (Plate II., fig. 1.) The tide may now 

 drive in as fast as it will, we shall go home rich. 



* See the next Chaptei- for an elucidation of this point. 



C 



