1885.] The Clam-Worm. 361 
instantly withdrawn ; but there is no spurt‘as before, because the 
previous effort had emptied it of water. 
The systematists call our mollusk Mya arenaria, but in popu- 
lar speech, because of its siphon, it is sometimes known as the 
stem-clam, and to distinguish it from Venus mercenaria, the qua- 
hog, round-clam or hard-clam, it is often called the soft-clam and 
long-clam. 
Busily delving with short-handled hoes, men and boys may be 
seen, at low tide, all over these sandy flats. They are “ the clam- 
mers.” Long practice, with perhaps inherited instinct, has made 
these persons expert in detecting the signs of the places of these 
mollusks, even when not betrayed in the usual way. They cer- 
tainly have that fine eye for discernment which comes of being 
to the business “bred and born.” Though perhaps preferring 
such places, these soft-clams are not limited to the sandy flats. 
They are also found in gravelly and even muddy beds. 
In digging the:clammer brings to the surface many a fine inver- 
tebrate of much interest to the naturalist. Among these quite 
often is a gayly tinted annelid, a quasi-aquatic myriopod. We 
watched one of these delvers,a youth quite bright in his own 
way, and respectful too, except perhaps to some student pedant 
whom he cannot understand, and whom he seems to regard as a 
- “dude in larning,” as we found out a little to our cost. There! 
He turns up an annelid now, and we exclaim—* What a pretty 
Nereid!” To which, with a quizzical cast of the eyes, he responds: 
“ Nary time, Mister! That’s. only a clam-worrum P Glad to 
become a learner upon opportunity, we ask why it is calleda 
clam-worm. The answer, now politely given, is: “ Because its 
gin’ally found along with the clam. » Most like it’s clam-feed, or 
something in that way.” 
The best known of these Nereids in our Eastern waters are WV. 
limbata, N. virens and N. pelagica ; of these three the chances 
are many that the Jersey clammers’ acquaintance will be restricted 
to the first one mentioned, though all would be the same to him. 
And it must be known- that though called a clam-worm, Nereis 
is no pariah, but the very highest in its class, the Annelides. And 
N. limbata is sometimes found seeking the higher society of the 
marine invertebrates. Verrill says of this species: “ Both males 
and females were often found among the barnacles and ascidians 
on the piles of the wharves at Wood's Holl, but the males were 
