12 A Visit to Llandudno. 



from the Alcyonia in their mode of fashioning their homes. 

 The Llandudno beach yields a good supply of Bugula, a 

 branching polyzoon like a tiny shrub, having its groups of cells 

 so arranged as to produce a pattern something like "what would 

 result from putting a series of funnels one in the other, with 

 their spouts pressed close to the sides of the mouths, in which 

 they were immersed. This is not an exact description, but 

 near enough to help a beginner in recognizing this curious 

 thing. These Bugulre are good specimens of the polyzoa to 

 exhibit the bird's-head processes, which occur in many genera, 

 and still puzzle naturalists to explain their use. They are 

 attached to the corners of cells; often look, as in this case, like 

 vultures' heads, and nod and snap their beaks with pertinacious 

 efforts, that sometimes catch a creature that may be swimming 

 by. Mr. Gosse considers their function is to hold such objects, 

 in order that in their decay they may attract other creatures 

 winch the ciliary currents, kept up by the tentacles of the poly- 

 zoon, may draw into its ravenous mouth. The specimens of 

 Bugula which I collected at Llandudno in September, did not, 

 in any case in which I watched them, open and snap their vul- 

 ture heads, which either nodded like so many mandarins, or 

 remained perfectly still. I do not know whether the animals 

 were sickly, or whether the activity of their heads varies with 

 the season or temperature to which they are exposed. The 

 heads are pretty objects under a quarter-inch or fifth objective, 

 and much more brittle than the material of which the cells are 

 composed, so much so that, when dried, a slight pressure of the 

 live-box crushes them like glass. 



I cannot describe each species, or genus, obtained between 

 the tide-marks, but may mention that Crista, Valkeria, Le- 

 pralia, Mcmbranipora, Sertularia, Laomedca, etc., etc., were 

 amongst the lot ; but having to make a selection from my notes, 

 I will first say a few words on the microscopic examination of 

 such an object as M&mbrani/pora pilosa, a very common polyp 

 covering sea-weeds with a crust, and often following their shape ; 

 and then make, for the nonce, the odd-looking and oddly-behaved 

 FcdiccUaria rchinata do duty for the tribe Polyzoa, to which he 

 belongs. Turning to Johnstone's Zoophytes we find the Mcm- 

 branipora described as follows — " Polypodium encrusting, 

 membrane calcareous, spreading irregularly, formed of a single 

 layer of alternating approximated cells ; cells oval, horizontal, 

 i Membraneous, the aperture patulous, with a hard calcareous 

 rim." M. pilosa is described as having " aperture of the cell 

 with one long hair and several spinous denticles." Now this 

 and many similar objects are too small to bo seen properly with 

 a very low power ; and if a higher one, say fifty or sixty linear, 

 is employed, certain parts aro quite out of the focus when 



