MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 117 



dredged up with Panthalis, from deep water between Port 

 Erin and Ireland : — Glycera alba (Kathke), and Pr axilla 

 gracilis (Sars). We have previously got them from the 

 Panthalis ground, but have not recorded them. 



" I got a very fine specimen of Owenia filiformis from 

 low water mark opposite Port Erin. I notice that 

 Hornell has not recorded it as found at the Isle of Man, 

 though I was under the impression we have got it by 

 dredging off Bradda Head. I also got Magelona papilli- 

 comis from low water mark at Port Erin. It also is not 

 recorded in Hornell's list, except in the Lancashire and 

 Cheshire column. So these are additions to the Manx 

 fauna. 



"You will be glad to hear that my observations of 

 Owenia have been very successful. I have induced the 

 beast to show me his building operations, and by means 

 of experiments, have ascertained how the imbrication of 

 the sand on the tubes is produced. The animal has 

 been good enough to exhibit the action of the labial 

 organ (metastomium), and I have seen it licking the 

 grains of sand, building with them (for which purpose 

 it selects the flat ones), and burrowing or digging down 

 into the sand. That organ is not used for burrowing 

 upwards. The surface of the sand in which the worm 

 lives is reached by a peculiar screwing and undulatory 

 motion of the worm inside its tube. The latter, held by 

 the innumerable uncini, travels with the worm inside it, 

 and is made to stretch until the surface of the sand is 

 reached, though, very occasionally, the hinder part of the 

 tube breaks off (I have only seen this happen once out of 

 a considerable number of trials). It is very much easier 

 for the worm to work its way to the surface than to go 

 down into the sand (if by chance stranded), although, in 

 the first case, the sancl on the tube is so arranged as to 



