ORDER TUBICOL.E. 15 



Zool., Dan. xxvi., of which Bruguieres has made his Amj)hi- 

 trite doree. 



The South Sea produces a larger species, Amphitrite aiiri- 

 coma Capensis, Pall., Miscel. ix. 1, 2, whose tube, thin and 

 polished, has the appearance of being transversely fibrous, 

 and formed of some dried, soft and stringy substance. It is 

 the same as Sahella chrysodon, Gm., Bergius Mem. de 

 Stockh. 1765, ix. 1, 3. ; as Sahella capensis, Id. Stat , Mull., 

 Nat. Syst VI. xix. 67, which is only a copy of Bergius ; as 

 Sahella Indica, Abildgaart., Berl., Schr. IX. iv. See also 

 Mart, Slabber., Mem. de Flessing. I. ii, 1 — 3. 



Other Amphitritae inhabit factitious tubes, fixed to submarine 

 bodies. Their gilded bristles foiin on their heads many con- 

 centric crowns, from which results an operculum, which closes 

 their tube when they contract themselves in it, and the two 

 parts of which may be separated. They have a cirrus to 

 each foot. Their body is terminated behind by a tube bent 

 towards the head, without doubt to emit the excrements. I 

 have found a muscular gizzard in them. They are the 

 SabellaricB of Lamarck, and the Hermell(B of Savigny. 



Such is the species found along our coasts, Sahella alveo- 

 lafa, Gm., Tuhipora arenosa, Linn. Ed. xii. Ellis. Corall. 

 xxxvi., in which the tubes, united to each other in a com- 

 pact mass, exhibit their orifices, pretty regularly arranged, 

 somewhat like the cells of bees. 



N. B. It is here, perhaps, that the Ajnphitrite plumosa of 

 Fab., Faun., Green, p. 288 ; and Mull., Zool., Dan. xc, ought 

 to come. But the descriptions are so obscure, and agree so 

 little together, that I dare not place it. M. de Blainville 

 makes of it his genus Pheriisa. 



Another, Amph. ostrearia, Cuv., establishes its tubes on 

 the shells of oysters, and is said to injure their propagation 

 very much. 



I suspect that it is to this order that we must refer, — 



