﻿T. Davidson — Wliat is a Brachiopod? 203 



peduncle to various marine objects, and very often to the outer sur- 

 face of one another's valves, and even quite young individuals to the 

 peduncle of the parent shell, as may be seen in a number of speci- 

 mens of Terehratulina septentrionalis sent me from America by Prof. 

 Verrill. I have likewise clusters of Terebratella rubicunda from 

 New Zealand, adhering to each other in a similar manner. They 

 occur also in great numbers attached by a shorter or longer peduncle 

 to coral reefs, and several minute species were found by Dr. Grwyn 

 Jeffreys fixed to sea- weeds. Kraussina rubra, from the coast of Natal 

 in South Africa, was described by Dr. Gray as found attached in vast 

 numbers to Ascidia and stems of sea- weeds. We may likewise men- 

 tion that a small species of Kraussina has been recently obtained by 

 Mr. Velain (during the French expedition to make observations re- 

 lative to the transit of Venus) in the interior of the breached and 

 submerged crater-basin of the Island of St. Paul, attached, in vast 

 numbers, to rocks at low tide-mark,^ and I am informed by Dr. 

 Gwyn Jeffreys that TerebratuUna caput-serijentis was found, by the 

 late Mr. E. T. Loweliviry, nearly forty years ago, in the living 

 state, attached to a rock at low-water mark, on a part of the Scottish 

 coast where the tide falls only a few feet. The same species occurs 

 also at variable depths, having been dredged alive from depths 

 varying from three to upwards of 150 fathoms. WaWieimia cranium 

 has been obtained from depths varying from 160 to 228 fathoms. 

 Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys does not believe that the habitat of any inver- 

 tebrate animal is affected by bathy metrical conditions. The late 

 Prof. J. Beete Jukes collected any number of Waldheimia flavescens 

 or australis while boating in Australia among the reefs ; they were 

 merely washed by the tide, and he gathered them with his hand like 

 limpets on the shore. 



Lucas Barrett informs us that this species, as well as Terehratulina 

 caput- serpeniis, manifested a remarkable power and disposition to 

 move on its peduncle, and that the cirri were almost constantly in 

 motion, and he often observed them to convey small particles to the 

 channel at their base. Dr. J. Gwyn Jeiireys, who has watched 

 Terehratulce alive, informs us that they were incessantly opening 

 and folding their brachial or labial appendages, and drawing and 

 sucking in by means of the whirlpool thus caused every animalcule 

 within their influence. 



Classification. — Having briefly alluded to some of the most im- 

 portant characters of the shell and animal of the Brachiopod. it is 

 necessary to refer to their classification. This matter will be found 

 fully discussed up to the year 1853 in the general introduction to 



^ Mr. Velain informs me, that the Brachiopods lie forwarded to me (a species of 

 Kraussina) are found in great abundance on the shore, in the interior crater of the 

 island of St. Paul. During the ordinary low tides they are scarcely covered by water, 

 and are alternately covered and left bare at the ebb and flow of the tide, biit twice 

 a month, duiiug the high tides, they are left completely dry. They occur only in an 

 area of a few yards, and consequently at a very shallow depth, doubtless because 

 they find there those undisturbed conditions to which they are accustomed in other 

 localities. 



