Annelides. 7319 



species, Lymneus stagnalis and Cyclas caliculata, do not, to iLe best of my belief, occur 

 elsewhere in the neighbourhood. Lymneus glaber, a rather rare shell, is plentiful in 

 one or two small horse-ponds at Ingleby Gieenhow, but except in these I never found 

 a single specimen, though I tried every pond and ditch in the surrounding neigh- 

 bourhood. Under these circumstances it would be unwise to doubt the fact of Mr. 

 Choules having discovered Physa rivalis, though we may reasonably wish to have one 

 or two points in its history cleared up before acknowledging it as one of our truly 

 indigenous Mollusca. — James Dallon ; Church Broughion, Derby. 



Curious Annelids at Ashburlon. — Being at Dartmoor, with my son, last July, we 

 made Ashburton the centre of our explorations. Among many other matters of inte- 

 rest a curious phenomenon occurred just at the entrance of the town. A quarter of a 

 mile or so from the houses there is a shallow horse-pond, the bottom of which consists 

 of an impalpable mud, mucii indented with hoof-holes and other irregularities. In 

 these, the water being dimly clear from settlement, we observed what looked exactly 

 like blood, in numerous patches, the appearance being as if two or three drops of 

 blood had fallen in one spot, half a dozen in another, and so on. The colour was 

 true; and even when we alighted, and looked carefully on the spots, they had just 

 that curdled appearance that drops of blood assume when they fall into still water. 

 But there appeared on minute examination a constant intestine motion in each spot, 

 which caused me to bring my eye closer, when I discovered that I had been egre- 

 giously deceived. Each apparent drop of blood was formed of a number of slender 

 worms — about as thick as a hog's bristle, and an inch and a half long — of a red hue, 

 which protruded the greater part of their length from the mud, in a radiating form, 

 each maintaining a constant undulatory movement. There were more or fewer 

 centres of radiation, the circles frequently interrupted by and merging into others, 

 just as drops of blood crowded together would do. On the slightest disturbance the 

 little actors shrank out of sight into the soft mud ; but by scooping up a little of this 

 I contrived to get a number of them into a phial, which, as the sediment settled, were 

 seen at the bottom, playing as if in their pond. On examination of specimens with a 

 micruscope I found them to be minute annelids, such as I have described, apparently 

 of the genus Lumbriculus of Grube, with two rows of bristle-pencils and two bristles 

 in a pencil. The body was transparent and colourless, and the red hue was given by 

 the great and conspicuous longitudinal blood-vessels, and by the lateral connecting 

 vessels, which viewed sidewise took the form of loops. The animals soon died in 

 captivity, but 1 kept some for three or four days. — P. H, Gosse; Sandhurst, Torquay. 



Notes on certain Crustacea observed Abroad. 

 By Arthur Adams, Esq., F.L.S. 



On the Habits of Eriocheir japonicus. — If we do not illustrate 

 the habits of our crab, I am determined the crab shall throw some 



