N E R E 1 S. 
19. Nereis punftata: body (lightly deprefied ; the pe¬ 
duncles furniflied with very long cirri. This fpecies is 
likewife found in the Northern Seas, in oyfler-fhells, or 
under (tones. 
20. Nereis alba: body convex; front horned; peduncles 
bifid. Found in the Teas about Norway, on a clayey bot¬ 
tom. The body of this fpecies is white, annulate, and 
tapering behind ; it has no eyes 5 and the probofcis is 
membranaceous, very pellucid, and capable of being in¬ 
flated to twice the width of the body; there are feventy- 
feven peduncles on each fide. 
21. Nereis flava : body deprefied ; peduncles with ob¬ 
long-ovate fcales. It is found in the Northern Seas, among 
the root of ulvse, and is about two inches and a half long. 
The body is yellow, and is divided into about 140 feg- 
ments. 
22. Nereis longa: body (lightly deprefied, and furnifhed 
with conic papillae inftead of fcales of the peduncles. It 
inhabits the (bores of Greenland, with a clayey or fandy 
bottom, near the mouths of rivers. 
23. Nereis pvifmatica: body triangular; peduncles dis¬ 
tant, with a Angle fetigerous papilla cirrate abov.e. This 
Is found on the (bores of Greenland, and is about half an 
inch long. 
.24. Nereis bifrons: body deprefied; peduncles with a 
Angle fegiterous papilla cirrate above, the middle ones alfo 
branched. This alfo is found in the Greenland Seas; is 
an inch long, has fifty-fix fegments, and is continually 
moving. 
25. Nereis caeca: body (lightly convex ; it has two very 
fliort feelers, and the peduncles have double ciliate la¬ 
mellae. It inhabits the fandy (hores of Greenland, under 
ftones, like the Lumbricus (which fee). It burrows 
very deep, and is about eight inches long. The body is 
divided into from 86 to 100 fegments. 
26. Nereis ebranchiata : body round annular, and taper¬ 
ing both ways; peduncles cylindrical, (hort and double, 
pinnate on each fide; it has no feelers, and inhabits the 
German and Indian Seas. The body is of a bluidi or 
greyifh brown, and is divided into 269 fegments. 
27. Nereis lamelligera: body flattifh, and tapering both 
ways ; probofcis deflate, with four flefii-coloured fpines; 
the peduncles are comprefled and furniflied with a femi- 
lunar fcale above, and a larger femiheart-(haped one be¬ 
neath. This is found in the Indian, Mediterranean, and 
alfo in the Northern, Seas, among aquatic plants ; and is 
nearly two feet long. The body of this fpecies is faid to 
be divided into from 200 to 550 fegments; the head has 
four feelers. 
28. Nereis ciliata : body deprefied ; mouth cylindrical, 
retra&ile; the anterior margin ciliate; it has no feelers. 
III. Mouth furnifhed with a tube. 
29. Nereisprolifera: body deprefied; peduncles cirrate; 
front with a fingle feeler. The head is orbicular, with 
three feelers; one ifiuing from behind the eyes, and two 
fmaller ones bridling from the anterior extremity of the 
head. Six other fimilar feelers of unequal length proceed 
from the neck, three on each fide; the fliorted being 
neared to the head ; the longed adhering to the fird leg¬ 
men t of the body. 
Six eyes were bedowed by the kindnefs of Providence 
upon this feeble and defencelefs creature, to enable it to 
avoid deftruftioii; four upon the head, looking like final! 
dots; the two poderior ones (mailer, and two under. No 
apparatus in the mouth either to cut or chew; and, in¬ 
dead of the probofcis ufual to the fpecies of the fecond 
fedfion, a final! blunt, thick, flexuous tube, is perceived 
through the (kin, winding down as far as thefeventh feg- 
ment, and lofing itfelf in the intedines. The body is full 
of a mucid or mucus-like fubdance. The number of the 
fegments, with feet annexed to each, is between 32 and 46 
jn perfeft fubjeffs, or thofe in which, aided by a power¬ 
ful microfcope, the obferver can find no trace of divifion. 
The foot is compofed of a fle(hy obtufe lobe, armed with 
Vol.XVL No. 1149. 
725, 
a fmall bunch of bridles, and a feeler three times finaller 
than the frontal one. The tail is terminated by two 
hair-like feelers of a middle fize. 
A phenomenon not uncommon in the genus Nai's, 
but, known in no other Nereis, is to be obferved in this 
fpecies; viz. a generation through divifion. A motlier- 
nereid has been found with three fcetufles, of diderent 
ages, adhering lengthways to her body. The mother 
exhibited thirty fegments ; the younged daughter, the 
neared to the mother’s tail, had only eleven ; the olded 
and mod remote had her eyes and feelers difengaged, and 
feventeen fegments; and the middle one had the fame 
number. The two lad by a gentle prefiure parted from 
the mother. In the elded, the fegments were didinguifhed 
on the Tides by white fpots upon black matter. Thefe 
fmall bodies could be prefled out, and would fall in the 
(liape of eggs, marked with a pellucid point. But, arc 
thefe eggs ? and, if they are, could eggs be already con- 
fpicuous in a fubjeft dill adhering to its mother? and is 
this diminutive worm of fo great importance in the fecret 
myderies of Nature, and its productions fo necedary to 
fome particular end, that propagation fliould even precede 
birth ? In the younger fcetufles dots are feen as in the 
other. Are they rudiments of eggs ? Who can anfwer ? 
This fpecies is found (but not commonly) in the bays of 
Norway. It is diown, with two fcetufles adhering to it, 
as feen under the microfcope, at fig. 11. and one of the 
feet, with the feeler and bunch of bridles, greatly mag¬ 
nified, at fig. 12.' 
IV. New Species defcribed by Mr. Montagu in the 
Linn. Tranf. 
30. Nereis pinnigera : body long and flender, with 
numerous opaque white joints tranfverfely marked with 
yellow, and furniflied at the Tides with long flat appen¬ 
dages that flow over the back: tentacula fcarcely diflin- 
guifliable, unlefs the longer appendages in front be fuch: 
eyes four, chocolate-colour: the poderior end fuddenly 
decreafes, and becomes very fmall, as if that part had 
been newly formed; a circumflance of no unreafonabie 
conje£l.ure, as it is well known that many of the mollulca 
tribe are capable of reproduction. Length an inch and 
a half. 
31. Nereis fanguinea: body long, flightl.y deprefied be¬ 
neath, and acuminated towards each, end, but much more 
fo at the poderior extremity. The number of joints ex¬ 
ceeds two hundred and feventy; about forty of which at 
the poderior end are of a much paler colour, and appear 
to be a reproduction ; the red of the body is of a flne 
bronze, refplendent with changeable prifmatic tints ; the 
Tides furnifhed with tridentate peduncles, from the middle 
of which ifiue a flat fafciculus of hair of a pale colour, and 
one large black bridle. About the twenty-eighth joint 
commence on each fide branched cirri of a blood-red co¬ 
lour, which afterwards increafe confiderably in length ; 
thefe originate from the upper part of each peduncle, 
and are ufually hexafid, but unite above the bafe; they 
are not retraftile, hut are generally carried ereCt and 
fpread, giving the animal a beautiful appearance. The 
upper lip is bilobate, behind which are five fliort tentacula, 
the middle one Aanding in the future of the iip. Between 
the two outer tentacula on each fide is a (mall black eye. 
The fird joint behind the head is broader than the red, 
and deditute of peduncles 1 the poderior extremity is fur¬ 
niflied with two fmall terminal cirri. The mouth is large 
and placed beneath, concealing mod formidable jaws, or 
complicated fangs, which where protruded occafionally 
as the animal became fickly, and very frequently in the 
agonies of death, when a few drops of (pints were added 
to the fea-water: this apparatus confids of three pairs of 
hooked fangs of a dark colour; one pair finooth, the 
others toothed, befides a pair of broad plates on the lower 
part of the mouth, the flrudture of which will be better 
underdood by the accompanying figure. See fig. 15. 
This is the larged fpecies of Nereis yet dii'covered to 
8 Y inhabit 
