262 MEAD. [Vol. XIII. 



nearly everywhere in light sand or gravel just below low- water 

 mark, live in slender sand-tubes. 



Under the most favorable circumstances I have sought in 

 vain for the eggs deposited under natural conditions, and believe 

 they are discharged free into the water, usually at night, and 

 scattered by the tides. 



Since one is liable to be prevented by the high winds preva- 

 lent in May from getting the worms at just the right time, the 

 surest way to secure the eggs is to collect a large number of 

 worms just a few days before the breeding season. The males 

 and females can be distinguished, since the eggs show plainly 

 through the body-wall. If the females are kept in an aquarium 

 without sand, the eggs will never be laid, though the worms 

 may live for weeks ; nor can the eggs be fertilized, under these 

 circumstances, if cut out of the body-cavity. If, however, an 

 abundance of sand be furnished, they build new sand-tubes, and 

 deposit their eggs on the surface of the sand at the mouth of 

 the tube.* 



E. B. Wilson describes the Clymenella, which occurs in great 

 numbers at Beaufort, N. C, as laying its eggs in jelly masses 

 the size of pigeon's eggs. These masses are attached to one 

 of the two openings of a Y-shaped tube, and are found all 

 summer in great abundance. In the Woods Holl form many 

 of the Y-shaped tubes are found in the breeding season, but 

 there are no jelly masses. The wide divergence in the breed- 

 ing habits of the northern and southern forms is remarkable, 

 though it is possible that the worm which Wilson describes is 

 Axiothea mucosa, and is generically different from the northern 

 Clymenella torquata (ci. Andrews^). 



The unfertilized egg is practically spherical, about 1 50/A in 

 diameter, and perfectly opaque, being filled with a large amount 

 of yellow yolk. They may remain unfertilized in the sea-water 

 for several hours at least and still be capable of developing 

 normally. 



* If finely broken glass be substituted for sand, they will use this in the con- 

 struction of their tubes. 



^ Andrews, E. A. : Report upon the Annelida Polychaeta of Beaufort, N. C. 

 Froc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. XIV, p. 277. 



