35 



knobbed at each end. Nereids were common, of moder- 

 ate size, and an exceedingly slender OUgochaetous worm, 

 bright red in color, was dug np out of the sand, several 

 inches below the surface. Planarians were quite fre- 

 quently noticed creeping over the surfaces of the slate 

 collectors. 



Amongst the lamellibranchiates noticed as inhabiting 

 St. Jerome's creek, besides the oyster, was a very destruc- 

 tive boring mollusk related to the true ship-worm, but 

 generally considered to represent another genus, Xylo- 

 trya fiiiibriata. So rapidly does this creature bore into 

 wood immersed in the sea that a small pine hatching-box 

 which I had placed in the tide-way to retain impregnated 

 oyster-eggs, was almost destroyed in the short space of 

 51 days. This mollusk is found at work at the heads of 

 the creeks, where the water is sometimes slightly brack- 

 ish, just as industriously as elsewhere. The ova, which, 

 according to my observations, are almost identically of 

 the same appearance and size as those of the oyster and 

 soft-shelled clam, are produced by the animals in vast 

 numbers and set free into the surrounding water, where 

 they are apparently fertilized by contact with the male 

 cells set free by the males. The embryos develop rapidly, 

 swim about and soon find a place to fix themselves on 

 some piece of wood in great numbers, when the work of 

 destruction begins. These animals, in the creeks and 

 inlets of the Chesapeake, will no doubt cause considerable 

 trouble to oyster-culturists in destroying the lumber used 

 ill making the collectors, nurseries and other apparatus 

 used in conducting such work. 



Solecurtus gibhus is found in the sandy flats along with 

 a species of t lie TelUnidae^ where the Mya arenaria ?i\so 

 abounds, wlii(*,h is used extensively as bait for taking the 

 sheep's-head. The spawning season of the My a is short, 

 and begins in the early part of September and hists until 

 the first or sec(md week of October. During Se])tember 

 the large visceral mass in the middle of the shell cavity 



