THE SEA-SPIDER. 171 



produced ; some of them twice. One young at a time 

 seems the rule, though I should not have expected so 

 limited a birth : it is extruded from the mouth of the 

 parent (as I conjecture, for I have not witnessed the 

 parturition) and dropping on the bottom, attaches it- 

 self close by her side, or not far off, and maintains its 

 position pretty pertinaciously, expanding its star-like 

 disk for prey, and greedily seizing and devouring it 

 when offered ; even though it should be so large as to 

 swell the body up to twice its former dimensions. 



The tentacles on beiug subjected to pressure display 

 a great number of filiferous capsules (Fig. 5) which 

 are thrown off in multitudes with the mucus pressed 

 off. They are very minute, almost Unear. about jg^th 

 inch in length. The extruded thread reaches to 

 about ^th inch : no barbs were discernible on it. 



SEA-SPIDER. 



A singular marine spider fPhoxichilusJ looking like 

 a skeleton, throws about its long legs, and crawls 

 slowly over the parasitic Crisim &c. from the roots 

 of LamitiaricB. A small one found to day carried 

 under it four globose masses of eggs, altogether much 

 wider than its body. They were difficult to detach, 

 being firmly held by the first pair of feet, which are 

 slenderer than the rest and bent under : the e^^ masses 

 were of a flesh-colour, and under the microscope were 

 full of minute perfectly globular opaque ova. 



BLACK SAND-WORM. 



May 22nd. — I again visited Watermouth and 



