ITS STRUCTURE. 229 



triangular scaly spines, somewhat imbricate, the points 

 of which are blunt, and are recurved. The resem- 

 blance borne by this organ to the proboscis in the 

 parasitic Entozoa and Epizoa, is remarkable, and not 

 only shows the affinity of the Syrinx to the vermiform 

 classes, but suggests some analogy of purpose to 

 which the spines are subservient. What the nature 

 of the food is in the Syrinx, and what is the mode 

 in which it is procured, I have no knowledge. I 

 believe the subject is still in tenehris ; but the sto- 

 mach is said to be always filled with sand and min- 

 nute fragments of shells, between the swallowing of 

 which and an elaborate prehensile array of re- 

 curved hooks, I certainly can imagine no connexion. 

 The whole spinous surface of the proboscis is much 

 more brilliantly iridescent than the body. The 

 termination of this organ is said to be furnished 

 with a circle of short digitate tentacles ; but as the 

 animal did not evert the proboscis to the full extent 

 while I had it alive, I had no opportunity of ob- 

 serving these. 



At a little more than an inch below the commence- 

 ment of the proboscis there is a small tubercle, which 

 I at first took for a wound, through which the intestine 

 was protruding ; but I believe it is the natural orifice 

 of the digestive canal, which is said to be of great 

 length, extending to the extremity of the body, and 

 then turned on itself till it reaches this tubercle in its 

 reverted course. 



The animal was inert, scarcely moving, except 

 when touched, and died after I had had it about 

 a week. 



