DE QUATREFAGES RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
97 
<£ Here no microscope or lens can aid us. Ho but drop into a basin 
of sea-water this fragment of rock and this old shell, whose surface is 
covered with Serpula, Yermilia, and Cymospires; observe the prudent 
caution with which that little round plate rises above each tube, which 
it is designed to close hermetically, so that your eyes cannot penetrate 
to the interior; this is the hall-door of the house! See! it is moving,—the 
animal will soon show himself. Look, and you will see below that 
operculum, bud-like patches of dark violet or rich carmine in one part, 
and of a blue or orange tint in another; while still further on appear 
tufts of every hue. See them expand little by little, until they have 
displayed the whole of their thousand coloured branches, similar in form 
to a plume of ostrich or marabout feathers. You are a witness of the 
evolution of veritable flowers, more beautiful by far than the blossoms 
of our gardens, for these are living flowers !” 
While the principal part of these volumes is devoted to the conside¬ 
ration of marine zoology, yet we have now and then little sketches of 
some terrestrial animals. 
Among the mammals that lived on Brehat, we find two representatives 
of the genus Mus, i. e. the mouse and the black rat,—Brehat being 
one of the very few places in Europe where this same poor black rat 
reigns. And we are really sorry to find that M. A. de Quatrefages thinks 
it very likely that that great pirate, the Norway, or brown rat, will tra¬ 
verse the narrow arm of the sea which separates Brehat from the Conti¬ 
nent, and eat up all the black ones. Happy ancients ! that knew only of 
poor country mice, and rich city ones ;—and unhappy little mice in that 
while ye were wont at one time to open in acts of hospitality—your 
bosoms—closely attentive otherwise to your narrow circumstances; and 
at others—“ Bonis rebus agere leetum convivam’ ’ —now ye must be 
content, not with “ tenui ervo,” but with being yourselves the tender 
food of one of your own genus! 
A scientific commission, consisting of M. Milne Edwards, M. Blan¬ 
chard, and M. Quatrefages, was appointed in the autumn of 1843 to 
visit the coast of Sicily. On the 28th March, 1844, they reached INfaples. 
We must refer our readers to vol. i. for information concerning their 
visit to Palermo and other places, and how they chartered a good boat, 
with the pretty name of “La Santa Bosalia,” and how the Santa Bosalia, 
at the captain’s command of “Yoga,” glided rapidly through the waters, 
and brought them round many a promontory, and over many a bay, stop¬ 
ping the while when the place looked inviting, and going on when it 
did not. Strange that they always avoided the shores where Caryo- 
phyllise abounded; and yet experience, M. A. de Quatrefages says, taught 
him that their presence proclaimed the most complete sterility in all 
other respects. 
There are appendices to each volume, in which we have short bib¬ 
liographical notices of the various authors alluded to in the text, and in 
some instances more exact information regarding organization and clas¬ 
sification than it would be expedient to give in the work itself. We are 
surprised at the ignorance displayed by our author about our first-class 
vol. v.— eev. o 
