408 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



together the sand, shells, mud, and other materials of which the 

 tube is fonned. In this creature, however, the secretion is so 

 plentiful, that it forms the whole of the tube. 



Nor does it content itself with a single tube, but forms several, 

 one after the other. When first made, the tube is so beautifully- 

 transparent, that the body of the inhabitant can be seen almost 

 as plainly as through glass ; but in process of time, it becomes 

 incrusted •with, mud and sand, and almost looks as if it were 

 made of veiy dirty leather. The average length of an adult 

 specimen is three inches, and its beautiful gill-fan is decorated 

 with brown and yellow. .A s is the case with most of the tube- 

 inhabiting worms, it is a very timid creature, jerking itself into 

 the tube on the least alarm, and contracting the orifice after it 

 has retired into seclusion 



Another species, the Fan Amphiteite {AmpMtrite ventila- 

 hrum), forms a long and tough tube, which is apparently made of 

 shoe-leather, but which is really formed from mud and the 

 cement which is secreted by the animal. Mr. Eymer Jones has 

 very lucidly described the mode of construction : " We wUl 

 suppose a specimen, with its plume fully expanded, in a jar filled 

 with its native element. In this condition, if a drop of liquid 

 mud be dropped from above into the water so as to disturb its 

 cleanliness, the animal immediately begins to arouse itself, and 

 all the thousands of cilia that fringe its branchial plumides are 

 discovered to be in vigorous activity, collecting by their incessant 

 action the diffused muddy particles into a loose mass, which is 

 soon perceived visibly accumulating in the bottom of the funnel. 

 Meantime, the neck, or first segment of the body, rising un- 

 usually high above the orifice of the tube, exhibits two fleshy 

 lobes or trowels, beating down the thin edges as they fold and 

 clasp over the margin, like our fingers pressing a flattened cake 

 against the palm of the hand. 



"During these operations, the muddy materials are seen 

 descending between the roots of the fans towards the trowels ; 

 while another organ, perhaps the mouth, is also occupied, it may 

 be, in compounding the preparation with adhesive matter. As 

 the bulk of the muddy mass diminishes, the activity of the 

 woi-m abates ; it is soon succeeded by repose, and then the tube 

 is found to have received evident prolongation.'' 



