344 Mr. Osler on burrowing 
The habits of the Terebella conchilega are so remarkable, 
and at the same time are so easily observed, that it is scarcely 
possible to read the minutely accurate description of it given 
by Pallas, in his Miscellania Zoologica, without a feeling of 
surprise at his having overlooked them. It does not indeed 
appear that he had ever met with the animal in its natural 
situation, or that he was even aware of its propensity to bur- 
row. His observations were made upon specimens thrown 
on shore by storms ; and that which his figure represents is 
evidently a starved one. 
But notwithstanding these disadvantages, his description is 
remarkably accurate and complete. Perhaps the surface 
which he has denominated “ ventral/' might with more 
propriety be considered as the “ dorsal but this is too unim- 
portant to be made a subject of dispute. The tentaculae are 
much more extensile than he has stated ; but this he could 
have known only by seeing them in action. If, when ob- 
serving the motions of the animal, he had put some sand at 
the bottom of the vessel, an experiment, his neglect of which 
is the more extraordinary, since he employed it in his ob- 
servations on the Pectinaria belgica, he would probably have 
completed his subject. His specimens must have been very 
weak and sickly indeed if they did not at least attempt to form 
a tube, and to bury themselves ; for I have ascertained that 
a serious wound, and even the loss of the entire tail, does not 
prevent them from attempting, and even completing these 
tasks. 
On these shores the Terebella conchilega is the most abun- 
dant of all the larger Annelides, with the exception of the 
Arenicola, and perhaps of the Sabellaria alveolata. They are 
