530 THE LUG- WORM. 



A species of Shell-binder is very common on the white mud of the lagoons of the Florida 

 Reef. It is an interesting view, when gliding over the Reef in a boat, to look over in the 

 shallow water and observe these creatures at work. They construct a tube about three-quarters 

 of an inch diameter, and it projects about two inches above ground. Few objects of nature 

 have arrested our attention with greater wonder than these tube-builders. Here we have a 

 worm, of low organization, and, so far as intelligence is concerned, it might well lie at the very 

 foot of the animal scale. Here we have the creature picking up material around it to build a 

 .house. It not only picks up material, but it selects, as a stone-mason does, the most suitable. 

 A singular circumstance is, that it builds its tube exclusively (its hard parts) of the little lime 

 fronds of calcareous alg;e — such as abound in the sand of the Reef. This alg;e grows abun- 

 dantly among the corals. The leaves, or fronds, are small, oval discs, when alive, covered by 

 green vegetable tissue. The worm selects the lime parts and lays them neatly in courses, just 

 as a stone-mason lays his wall. The worm occasionally places a bit of sea-weed in the courses, 

 to aid in concealing the walls. These will be seen introduced in various parts of the tube, 

 falling over and quite effectively breaking up the artificial aspect of the structure, which thus 

 serves as a protective resemblance to the surrounding weed-covered objects. What are our 

 thoughts, in view of this exhibition of "intelligence" in a base worm ! If nothing more, it 

 reminds us that human knowledge is finite. The worm goes a step further, — and what addi- 

 tional wonder do we not experience, when we see the creature hunt about for a bit of shell, an 

 entirely different object, and bring it to the tube precisely as we have seen in the case of the 

 trap-door spiders. Here the worm has a house. When lie wishes to feed, he pushes his 

 head against the shell door, which yields, and drops to its place when the worm retires. 

 Once in the completed tube, the worm does not leave it entirely. Often the whole struc- 

 ture is concealed by a, large piece of alga so fastened to the top that it falls over the 

 structure. 



Passing from the tube-inhabiting worms, we now come to those which are free and able 

 to move about at pleasure. 



No one who has walked on sandy coasts can have failed to notice the numerous worm- 

 casts which appear in the sand, between high and low water, being most numerous where the 

 sand is level, and becoming scarcer in proportion to the steepness of the slope. Sometimes, 

 when a large, marshy Hat makes its appearance, which is never entirely dry even at low water, 

 these worm-casts become so numerous that the foot can hardly be placed between them : and 

 even while the spectator is gazing on the wet sand, coil after coil of dark sand emerges from 

 below, as if Michael Scott's familiars were trying to fulfil their task of making ropes from 

 sea-sand. 



These sandy coils are the casts of the Lug-worm, so valuable to fishermen as a bait, and 

 which, when well settled upon the hook, and tipped with a mussel, prove most attractive to 

 the whiting pout, rock cod, plaice, dabs, and other shore-loving lishes. At every low tide the 

 fishermen's boys may be seen busily digging for Lug-worms, or Logs, as they generally term 

 these annelids, and in a populous spot they will fill their square wooden pails in a wonder- 

 fully short time. 



As a number of Lug-worms lie in a box, covered with sand, mud, and slime, twisting and 

 writhing about in continual movement, they have by no means an attractive aspect, and might 

 even be thought repulsive. But if a single worm be taken from the mass, washed, and placed 

 in a vessel of clear sea-water, it assumes quite a different aspect, and becomes a really beautiful 

 and interesting creature. Its color is very variable, but usually is dark green and carmine, 

 some specimens being almost entirely of the latter hue. Others, again, are nearly brown, and 

 some of a deep red. 



Along the sides runs a double row of the wonderful bristles by means of which the creature 

 is enabled to propel itself through the sand, and projecting from the back are thirteen pairs of 

 light scarlet tufts, which, on examination, are found to be the gills of the worm. These are 

 most beautiful organs, and when magnified are seen to be composed of many tufts, like the 

 branches of a thick shrub. 



