3 
SABELLARIA. 
GENERIC CHARACTER: Tubes numerous, composed 
°f sand and fragments of shells, united into a common 
tnass by means of a glutinous substance excreted by the 
animal; the orifices separate to each individual, cup- 
shaped. 
S. ALVEOLATA. Sabella A. Turt. Lin. Pen. Brit. Zo., 
vol. 4 , pi, 92, Gg. 162, the figure, from an injured specimen. 
Stew. Elem. Nat. Hist., vol. 2, p. 423. Sabeilaria A. 
Quarterly Journal of Science, vol. 14, pi. 3, fig. 4. Mont. 
Test. Brit., vol. 2, p. 540. Clustered Sand Tube. Com- 
mon, and in favourable situations increasing so as to cover 
a large extent of rock ; over which it is impossible to walk 
without crushing multitudes of these frail habitations. The 
situation chosen may not at first sight appear the best, for a 
creature which requires a considerable quantity of sand, 
before it can be provided with an habitation, which is 
placed on the bare rock, at the distance of many feet, or 
even yards, from the materials. But a bed of sand, 
though affording materials, would prove a bad foundation 
for the structure. Trusting therefore to the waves for 
what they may bring within reach, the building is placed 
°n the elevated surface, and the most successful season of 
erection is in stormy weather. In the first stage of exis- 
tence, and when only a single tube is produced, the 
appearance of this tube is much like that of Vermilia Tri- 
ff^etra, except in the nature of the materials employed. 
The orifices of the subsequent formations are more 
rounded and turned up. 
„ Reasons have been given why animals of this and the 
allowing genus should be excluded from a work which treats 
n| y of shells and their molluscous inhabitants ; since these 
® s etnble the latter in no respect, and the former only re- 
^.°tely. But faint as is the likeness, it is not altogether 
■sionary, and as it tends to show the links through which 
,. le affinities of nature are continued, it deserves our atten- 
J°n. Tim Arenieoise, as Cuvier terms them, are not the 
^ v creatures in which there is no adhesive attachment 
^ c tween the case and its inhabitant. But the process of 
nstruction of these slightly organized habitations is not 
h Ce «dingly remote from that of the most complete and 
®&utiful of testaceous structures. In the latter, for the 
Impose of growth, the mantle is applied to the surface of 
ad? s l ruc ture, even beyond the portion to which it actually 
a le res ; and the exudation of carbonate of lime with 
'Dial matter, is plastered on it. But in the case of the 
g!u| S ? nt tarail l> tbe process is so far different, that animal 
. ea alone is poured out; and this being fashioned into 
