264 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE. 



southern coast a little way from the shore, you may be 

 delighted and surprised with a modification of these 

 organs, which exhibits a more than ordinarily obvious 

 amount of creative forethought and skill. I will describe 

 them in the words of the learned historians of these 

 animals, MM. Audouin and Milne-Edwards : — 



" The feet are divided into two very distinct branches, 

 the lower of which is large, conical, of a yellowish-brown 

 hue, and much shagreened on the surface. The upper 

 branch is much less salient than the lower. We observe 

 at the foot of the dorsal shields two bundles of rigid bris- 

 tles : the one, expanded like a fan and applied upon the 

 shields, is fixed immediately outside the insertion of those 

 organs ; the bristles which compose it are awl-shaped, 

 without teeth, slightly curved, and directed inwards and 

 backwards ; their colour is a clear brown, with golden 

 reflections. The second bundle is inserted more exter- 

 nally, on a tuberculous footstalk, and points horizontally 

 backwards and outwards. The bristles which enter into 

 its composition are very long, very strong, and terminated 

 by a lance-shaped point, of which the edges are garnished 

 with teeth curved backwards towards the base. These are 

 veritable barbed arrows, having the extremities sometimes 

 exposed, but often concealed in a sheath which is formed 

 of two horny pieces, capable of opening and of closing 

 again upon them. 



" The use of these two valves it is not difficult to detect. 

 They protect the points of the arrow, and permit the 

 Aphrodite to receive.them again into its body unharmed ; 

 whereas, without this precaution, the tissues which they 

 traverse would be cut and mangled. But when these 

 weapons are deeply plunged into a foreign body, as into 

 the soft flesh of those animals which annoy the Worm, 

 since the sheath does not penetrate with them but folds 

 back, it follows that their teeth are inserted without any 

 protection, and that on account of their backward direction 



