54 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [348] 
ceding species, and has somewhat similar habits, but does not construct 
such perf :ct tubes. It is occasionally dug out of the sand at low-water, 
but is much more common in dceper water. 
The Staurocephalus pallidus V. is also an inhabitant of these sandy 
shores, burrowing in the sand at low-water. It is a slender species, 
about two inches long and one-tenth troad. It is peculiar in having 
four long, slender antenne or tentacles on the front of the ‘head, ar- 
ranged in a cross-like manner, to which the generic name alludes, 
There are also four, small, dark red eyes on the upper side of the head, 
The culor is pale yellowish, the red blood-vessels showing through an- 
teriorly. This worm is allied to the two preceding, and to Lumbri- 
conereis, and like them it is predacious in its habits and has a very 
complicated set of jaws, cousisting of numerous sharp, fang-like pieces 
of various shapes, arranged in several rows on both sides. 
The Sthenelais picta V. is another curious Annelid, which is some- 
times found burrowing in the sand at low-water mark, but it also occurs 
on sielly and muddy bottoms in deep water. It has a long, slender 
body, six inches or more in length, and the back is covered with two 
rows of thin, smooth scales, which are very numerous. The head is 
usually brownish, with a whitish spot on each side; there is generally 
a dark brown band along the back; the scales are translucent, and 
vary in their color-markings, but more commonly there is a border of 
dark brown or blackish along the inner edge, which is usually con- 
nected with a similar border along the anterior edge, or with an ante- 
rior angular spot, and often with a dark border along the posterior 
edge, leaving more or less of the central part of each scale white and 
translucent. 
The Nephthys picta (Plate XII, fig. 57) is also sometimes found bur- 
rowing in sandy mud at low-water mark, but it is much more frequent 
in the deeper waters of the sounds. It can be distinguished at once 
from all the other species of Nephthys found in this region by its greater 
slenderness, and by having the body whitish and variously marked or 
mottled on the back, toward the head, with dark brown; it sometimes 
has a dark brown median dorsal-line. The shape of the head and posi- 
tion of the tentacles are also peculiar. 
In sheltered situations, where there is some mud with the sand, the 
Cirratulus grandis V., (p. 319, Plate XV, figs. 80, 81,) is often met with 
burrowing beneath the surface. In similar places, and also in nearly 
pure, compact sand, and in sand mixed with gravel, the large tubes of 
Amphitrite ornata (p. 320, Plate XVI, fig. 82) axe often to be seen; 
these show a round opening, a quarter of an inch or more in diameter, 
surrounded by a slightly raised mound of sand, often different in color 
from that of the surface, and sometimes there are cylinders of such 
sand around the opening. These tubes are scarcely to be distinguished 
from those of Anthostoma robustum, described above, and are found in 
