HISTORY OF THE SUBJECT. 9 



mentions that Captain Fayrer, R.N., got an individual of the same species holding on to a bait 

 of Buccinum undaium on his long line, while fishing for cod off Portpatrick. In confinement 

 the Lineidce readily feed on fragments of mussel. As soon as a specimen has come in contact 

 with a suitable portion, the mouth is enormously dilated, the inner surface of the first part of the 

 oesophageal region thrust outwards, and the bolus, although of considerable size, rapidly swallowed. 

 The snout of the animal during this process is curved backwards, doubtless to afford assistance 

 by its tactile properties, but there is no extrusion of the proboscis. They also feed on dead 

 specimens of Nereis pelagica, Harmotlioe imbricata, and other annelids, ejecting the bristles and 

 indigestible portions per (mum, and the only inconvenience which they suffer from the spines and 

 bristles is an occasional perforation of the digestive tract and body-wall, and the formation of a 

 vesicle in the cutaneous textures, through which the offending structures are by-and-by extruded. 

 One specimen of L. gesserensis under examination boldly seized the head of a large Nepkt/igs, 

 upwards of an inch longer than itself, and partially engulphed its prey. Many, moreover, greedily 

 swallow their fellows, and hence it is dangerous to leave examples of rare specimens together in a 

 vessel, as the larger generally make a meal of the smaller. While thus predatory and voracious,, 

 they are in turn tolerant of much injury ; for instance, a specimen of L. gesserensis had its head and 

 anterior portion seized and confined in the stomach of a Sagartia troglodytes for about ten minutes, 

 yet the worm afterwards got free, and crawled about as if nothing had happened. In Cephalothriv 

 the contents of the digestive tract are easily observed, and in confinement often consist of frag- 

 ments of each other. I have not been so successful in seeing the Enopla feed, but they probably 

 take similar nourishment. Several of the large forms, such as Lineus bilineai its, have been found 

 in the stomachs of haddocks and flounders caught off St. Andrew's Bay. 



Their hardihood when confined in vessels without food has already been described. 



HISTORY OP THE LITERATURE ON THE SUBJECT. 



The early authors on Zoology, while conversant enough as a rule with a few of the con- 

 spicuous Annelids, altogether omitted to notice the Nemerteans. Thus no mention is made of 

 them by Linnaeus, Seba, Blumenbach, Swammerdam, and others. 



In 1758 the Rev. William Borlase, E.R.S., 1 introduced the Nemerteans to our Fauna by the 

 following description of Lineus marinus :— "Fig. xiii, Plate xxvi, is the long worm found 

 upon Careg-Killas, in Mount's Bay " (Cornwall), " which, though it might properly enough come 

 in among the anguilli-form fishes, which are to succeed in their order, yet I chuse to place here 

 among the less perfect kind of sea animals; it is brown, and slender as a wheaten reed; it 

 measured five feet in length (and perhaps not at its full stretch), but so tender, slimy, and 

 soluble, that out of the water it will not bear to be moved without breaking ; it had the contrac- 

 tile power to such a degree that it would shrink itself to half its length, and then extend itself 

 as before." A rough engraving of L. marinus accompanies this account. 



Certain « marine insects " from amidst Sertularians and other Corallines are represented in 

 Tab. iv of Baster's " Opuscula," 3 vol. i, 1762, one of which, fig. 9, is a Nemertean, probably 

 Tetrastemma Candida. No further mention is made of the animal. 



1 < The Natural History of Cornwall,' p. 255, tab. 26, f. 13. Oxford, 1758. 



2 Baster, < Opuscula Subseciva.' Haarlem, 1762. 



2 



