THE PROBOSCIS. 249 



stomachj throat, or proboscis is famished with a for- 

 midable apparatus of homy grasping jaws, variously 

 modified into teeth, hooks and knife-blades, for seiz- 

 ing, tearing and catting prey ; but in Phyllodoee, 

 there are none of these, the elegant animals feeding 

 probably on the fluid juices of dead animals, or on 

 their soft parts, which need no violence. The very 

 tip, however, which of course is perforated, is sur- 

 rounded by a muscle, by means of which it contracts 

 forcibly on whatever it is applied to, and thus holds 

 it firmly while the inversion of the sac drags it into 

 the body to be digested. The disappearance of the 

 organ is as astonishing as its extrusion ; beginning at 

 the tip, which is quickly turned in, the whole rapidly 

 returns to its cavity in the same order as it came out, 

 and then we wonder how so enormous a proboscis can 

 be enclosed in so slender a body. 



There is one species of this genus, very common 

 in the situations I have mentioned, named PA. la- 

 melligera ; which is of a yellowish-green, sometimes 

 verging to an olive hue. But a much more beautiful 

 kind has been sent me alive from Torquay, by the 

 courtesy of Mr. Kingsley, who found it beneath a 

 stone at the edge of the laminarian level. I can find 

 nothing corresponding to it either in Audouin and \\. 

 Edwards, or in Dr. Johnston's papers on the British 

 Annelida, and shall therefore describe it under the 

 appellation of P. marginata. 



Its length varies from five to three inches, accord- 

 ing as it is elongated or contracted; the body is 

 composed of about 170 segments, nearly of equal 

 diameter throughout, and abruptly rounded at both 



