260 Miscellaneous. 



that it was difficult to tell their authority. He seldom finished or 

 coloured his sketches at the time he made them, hut would mark 

 on the parts of the drawing with the colour that they ought to he 

 (as "red,"' "white," "black") without indicating the shade. This 

 explains why the figures which are taken from his sketches in the 

 first volume of Jardine's ' Js'aturaKst's Library ' (1842) were so erro- 

 neously coloured, and makes the determination of some of his figures 

 doubtful. It was this defect that rendered his beautiful and exten- 

 sive series of sketches of so little value to the zoological student. 



On some RemarTcahle Egg-sacs on an Annelid from the North Sea. 

 By Prof. Kakl Mobius. 



Several specimens of Scolecolepis cirrata, Sars, were captured in 

 the expedition of the ' Pommerania' on the 6th August, 1872, at a 

 depth of 69 fathoms, to the north-east of Scotland. This worm 

 belongs to the family Spioidei. The body-segments are 2-4 millims. 

 broad and 4 millims. deep ; they have on each side a foot composed of 

 a large upper and a smaller lower lamina. On the 28 segments of 

 the fore body Hnguliform branchiae with long vibratile cilia are placed 

 at the inner border of the upper foot-laminse. The hinder segments 

 have no branchiae. All the segments bear long pointed setae both on the 

 upper andlower foot-plates; on the lower laminae of the hinder segments 

 there are also uncini ; and below and between them some small pouches, 

 having the form of a swallow's nest, are attached. Many of these 

 pouches contain a round mass of eggs, which often projects far beyond 

 the orifice of the pouch. The eggs protruding from the pouches are 

 held together by a net with quadrangular meshes, formed of cords of 

 extremely fine threads. Before the pouches are filled with eggs this 

 net lies in part like a lining within its pouch, and in part on the skin 

 of the worm between the foot-laminae. As the latter contain many 

 mucus-glands with fine orifices opening externally, we may assume 

 that these glands form the net. The eggs are produced in the body- 

 cavity of the worm, and issue through apertures which traverse the 

 body- wall between the lower foot-laminae ; they then lift the ready 

 prepared net from the skin, and are retained by it upon the body of 

 the worm. The young animals which are developed from the eggs 

 can slip out into the water through the meshes of the net. 



"We know of many Polychaetous Annelids which bear their eggs 

 and young in a sac attached to the ventral surface (e. g. Autoh/tiis 

 prolifer, Miill.), one which carries them on the shorter dorsal fila- 

 ments of its feet {Syllis pulligera, Krohn), and one which conceals 

 them beneath folds of skin, developed on the peduncle of the oper- 

 eiilum with which it closes its tube {Spirorbis sj)iriUum, Pagenst.) ; 

 but the peculiar arrangement for the protection of the progeny seen 

 in Scolecolepis cirrata was previously unknown. — Schriften des 

 naturwiss. Vereins fiir Schleswig-Holstein, Band i., February 2, 

 1874. 



