IN FEATHERS AND FUR. 287 
stopper jerks into its place too, and stops the door completely. 
The arm or tentacle on which it is fastened is a little longer than 
the gill-fans, and so it is easily held in place. 
It is no common stopper either ; it is as highly ornamented, 
and as highly colored, in many cases, as though it was the only 
beauty belonging to its owner. In some, it is an elegant scarlet 
color, others have horns, on ; one kind is furnished with spikes, and 
another has ridges ; one is conical in shape, while the next may be 
flat and round. But the strangest door of the whole, is a sort of a 
three storied concern, which looks — some one says — like the 
tower of Babel (as seen in pictures.) 
Most of the Tube-building Worms are sociable, and build in 
groups, some of them all twisted together, and others straight and 
erect. When the curious little creature gets ill, he don't retire to 
his bed as men do, he comes out of his house and dies on the 
ground outside. 
