ARTICULATED ANIMALS.—CLASS I. ANNELIDES. 
246 DIVISION III. 
from our view, so that but few know of the secret wonders that are hidden 
under the tufts of algw, or on the sandy bottom of the sea.” 
And if we look to outward appearance, we shall find that many of the 
marine Annelides may well be reckoned among the handsomest of crea- 
tures. They display the rainbow tints of the humming-birds, and the 
velvet, metallic brillianey of the most lustrous beetles. The vagrant spe- 
cies that glide, serpent-like, through the crevices of the submarine rocks, 
or, half creeping, half swimming, conceal themselves in the sand or mud, 
are pre-eminently beautiful. The delighted naturalists have consequently 
given them the most flattering and charming names of Greek mythology — 
Nereis, Euphrosyne, Eunice, Alciope, &e. 
In the most of the wandering Annelides, each segment is provided with 
variously-formed appendages, more or less developed, serving for respira- 
tion and locomotion, or for aggression and defence ; while in some of the least 
perfect of the class, not a trace of an external organ is to be found over the 
whole body. Almost all of them, however, feed on a living prey, — Plana- 
rias and other minute creatures, — which they enclasp and transpierce with 
their formidable weapons. Some, lying in wait, dart upon their victims as 
they heedlessly swim by, seize them with their jaws, and stifle them in their 
deadly embrace; others, of a more lively nature, seek them among the 
thickets of corallines, millepores, and alge, and arrest them quickly ere they 
can vanish in the sand. 
But the Annelides also are liable to many persecutions. 
perpetually at war with them; and when an imprudent Annelide quits its hid- 
den lurking-place, or is uncovered by the motion of the waves, it may reckon 
itself fortunate, indeed, if it escapes the greedy teeth of an eel or a flat- 
fish. It is even affirmed of the latter, as it is of the whelks, that they know 
perfectly well how to dig the Annelides out of the sand. The sea-spiders, 
lobsters, and other crustacea are the more dangerous, as their hard shells 
render them perfectly invulnerable by the bristling weapons of the An- 
The fishes are 
nelides. 
ORDER I. TUBICOL. 
While the greater part of these worms lead a vagrant life, others, like 
secluded hermits, dwell in self-constructed retreats, which they never leave. 
Their cells, which they begin to form very soon after having left the ege, 
and which they afterwards continue extending and widening, according to 
the exigencies of their growth, generally consists of a hard, calcareous — 
mass; but sometimes they are leathery or parchment-like tubes, secreted by 
the skin of the animal, not, however, forming, as in the mollusks, an in- 
