336 Dr. Johnston's Conlribntioyis to the British Fauna. 



the olhpr armed with a brush of soft liairs. No bristles. Tlie 

 hratuhia' are not retractile ; the feet are probably so. ylmis ter- 

 minal, stellated, or surrounded with eight short simple processes, 

 which assume a star-like form. Intestine apparently large, dilated 

 at each segment, simple, filled with dark mud-like matter. 



The Spio "uli^aris inhabits the seashore, and the margins of our 

 river, a little below high-watermark. It prefers a soil composed 

 of sand and mud, and in which the latter rather preponderates. 

 It is found lurking under stones, or burrowing in the soil, and in 

 the latter situations, the surface to a great extent is seen full of 

 small round perforations, and covered with little heaps of its 

 tubular and spiral excrements. When disturbed it descends in 

 its furrow with great rapidity, and to a considerable depth ; when 

 taken it throws itself into violent contortions, during which the 

 body generally separates into several portions, or loses its antennae, 

 •which always separate at their very base. Their several portions 

 retain their vitality for at least some days, which they evince not 

 merely by their contortions when pricked, but even by moving 

 from one place to another. The animal is used in this neighbour- 

 hood as a bait to take the fry of the Coal-fish, — here called 

 Poddlies. 



It is dilTicult to believe that so very common an animal, and 

 one too of a considerable size, should have remained unknown and 

 undescribed up to this time. It is certainly however not men- 

 tioned in the British Fauna of Dr. Turton, who professes to de- 

 scribe all the species known up to 1807; nor does it occur in the 

 last edition of the British Zoology of Pennant, in which the 

 species discovered up to the period of its publication in 1812, are 

 said to be given. Lamarck has four species of the genus, but the 

 characters of none of them correspond with that to which, from its 

 commonness, I have attached the specific name vulgaris. 



NOTE. 



A few days since a specimen of tlie CuUionymus Dracunculus was brought me, 

 which on dissection was found to contain a rnilt, or in other words was a male. 

 1 mention this fact, as it seems opposed to the opinion of Mr. Neill, wiio believes 

 this species and the C. Lyra of autliours lo be merely the different sexes of 

 the same animal; as he has found " the gemmeous dragonets (C. Lyra) to be 

 uniformly millers, and the sordid dragonets (C. Dracunculus) to be uniformly 

 spawners." — Wern. Memoirs, vol. i. p. 530. 



[ To be continued. ] 



