396 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS, 



shapes, would appear quite hannless by the side of the Serpula's 

 hooks, could they only be magnified to proportionate size. One 

 bunch of these most formidable hooks would seem to be all-suf- 

 ficient for the purpose, but when it is remembered that every 

 foot-wart has its hooked armatures, amounting to fourteen or 

 fifteen hundred in number, the power of the creature's hold 

 ceases to be surprising. 



Perhaps the reader may ask how the animal ever contrives to 

 push itself out of the case at all, seeing that it is held by such 

 a grasp. A further look through the microscope shows that the 

 hooks are affixed to long tendinous bands, of great delicacy, but 

 at the same time of great strength, which enable the animal to 

 protrude the hooks so as to seize the membrane, and to withdraw 

 them when their purpose has been served. The dark-background 

 illumination shows the formation of the hooks in a very clear 

 and beautiful manner. 



If possible, the observer should preserve specimens of the 

 hooks for the microscope. He will not want for examples, as 

 the creatures have a habit of coming out of their tubes and 

 dying on the floor of the aquarium, to the great discomfiture of 

 the owner. I find that Deane's gelatine answers very well for 

 the purpose, and the specimens which have just been mentioned 

 are now in perfect preservation, after having been in the gelatine 

 for some six years. 



It is very curious to watch the different methods by which the 

 Serpula protrudes and withdraws itself When it retires into 

 the tube, it vanishes so quickly that the eye cannot follow its 

 movements, but when it protrudes itself, it does so in a very 

 deliberate manner, seeming to feel its way cautiously towards 

 the light, and to be ready to dart back again with or without 

 reason. 



The organs by means of which it protrudes itself are placed 

 close to those which withdraw it. Through the foot-warts project 

 a number of stiff, transparent bristles, which are wonderfully 

 like the many-barbed spears of savage nations. I have an arrow 

 of the Tonga Islands which is almost an exact reproduction of 

 a foot-bristle of the Serpula, saving that wood and bone are 

 substituted for the purer material of the bristle. The shaft 

 runs quite straight, but towards the tip, the bristle is flattened 

 and widened into a head just like that of a spear. The head 



