flower. Of this kind is the Magnificent Amphitrite, figured in the Linnean Transactions. It is found in the rocks of various parts of the coast of Jamaica. When alarmed, it retracts its tentacles within its tube, and the tube itself into the rock. How it excavates its rocky burrow has not been ascertained. The Sabellæ, which pass under various names in different authors, inhabit the sandy parts of the shore, and like certain case-worms form a covering for their tube of selected grains of sand, mixing sometimes other substances that suit their purpose, which, by some secretion at their disposal, they glue pretty firmly together so as to form a neat case tapering towards the tail. The animal buries itself and case in the sand, with its head towards the surface, so, probably, as to enable it to protrude it and expand its tentacles to collect its food when covered by the water. The bristles of the legs in some species resemble burnished gold. The functions of a large proportion of the animals of this order seem to correspond with those of the bivalve shell-fish; they undermine the sands and the rocks, bore into sponges and corallines, and other submarine substances, and some probably, into submerged wood: like them, also, they seem to feed on animalcules brought within their reach by the tide. The Serpulidans, whose 1 Tubularia magnifica. Shaw. food is similar, are directed by the will of their Creator to affix themselves externally to any submerged bodies that come in their way, whether mineral or animal. All they require seems to be something to attach themselves to, on which they can protrude their tentacular gills, and seize their prey. They must contribute largely, as well as the mining Annelidans of this order, to the production of calcareous matter. Mr. Sowerly suspects that their proboscis may be instrumental in forming the shell, but it seems not properly a proboscis, but merely an operculum on a long footstalk, which was requisite that it might be protruded so far as not to interfere with the action of the gills. The animals included in Mr. Savigny's first Order, the Nereideans bring us very near to the Condylopes. They have a distinct head, jointed organs like antennæ, eyes, a proboscis armed with maxillæ, and spurious legs. They have also certain dorsal scales, which M. Savigny calls elytra, and deems analogous to the organs of flight in insects. These animals seem to afford the first example of the conversion of organs of locomotion into others, employed for a different purpose. I do not mean by this, that, in the progress of the animal's growth, one organ is really converted into another, but that analogous organs, in different tribes or genera, are employed for different purposes. Thus, what in most Annelidans are locomotive organs, in Lycoris, Phyllodoce, and some other Nerëideans1 become a kind of tentacle. The marine Scolopendra of Aristotle most probably belonged to this Order, and many species make a near approach to the terrestrial ones. Like them they are long and often flat, consisting of a great number of segments, some having between two and three hundred, furnished according to the species, with one, two, or three pairs of legs in each ; like them also they twist about in all directions when handled, they conceal themselves in close places where they lie in wait for their prey. In one respect some of them add the instinct of the spider to that of the centipede, for they line and sometimes cover the cavities of the rocks which they inhabit with a slight silken web, and thus concealed they watch the approach of some animal, and, suddenly thrusting out the anterior part of their body, seize and devour it. My late indefatigable and talented friend, the Rev. L. Guilding once found a land species, in an ancient wood in the Island of St. Vincent's, which from its soft body he regarded as a Molluscan, but from its figure, and annulose structure, its jointed antennæ, and seemingly jointed legs crowned with bristles, it certainly belongs, as Mr. Gray has remarked, to the present class. 1 Savigny, Syst. des Annel. 9, 12, 13. 2 PLATE VIII.. FIG. 4. 3 PLATE VIII. FIG. 1. Mr. G. calls it Peripatus juliformis. Though it has scarcely a distinct head, its resemblance to the cylindrical myriapods1 is very striking. Other species of this Order resemble the Isopod Crustaceans, and some even roll themselves up like one tribe of them.2 3 These animals have their haunts sometimes in deep burrows and passages under the sea-weed or in the sea-sand. They are so fierce in their habits that some have been styled the tigers of the worms. Some fishes in their turn make them their prey. Many of them, as the seamouse, are remarkable for the brilliancy of their metallic hues. Perhaps these dazzling splendours, as in the case of some insects, may be of use to them in preventing the escape of their prey. Their forms and instruments of locomotion seem particularly adapted to the situation and circumstances in which they are placed; their legs, which approach the jointed legs of crustaceans and insects, fit them for moving on the surface of the bed of the sea, their oars for swimming in the water, and the long form of many for threading the sinuous paths and burrows in which they have their habitation and place of refuge. So exactly are they fitted by the skilful hand of the almighty and benevolent Architect of all animal forms to live and move in the place he has assigned to them. 1 Julus. L. 3 Aphrodita aculeata. 2 Nereis Armadillo. 4 Introd. to Ent. ii. 221. APPENDIX. SINCE the preceding part of this treatise had mostly passed through the press, I have had an opportunity of consulting some recently pub, lished works, which contain accounts, illustrated by figures, of many very interesting animals belonging to several of the Classes of which I have there treated; and all of which more or less demonstrate a presiding Intelligence immediately connected with the globe that we inhabit, and who, viewed under every aspect, evidently careth for us, and all the creatures he has made. I shall select a few of these for the consideration of the reader. 2 I formerly observed1 that types representing some of the higher forms of the animal kingdom were often to be detected amongst those belonging to its lowest grade: a remarkable instance of this may be seen in one of Ehrenberg's late works, in which is described and figured a singular Polygastric Infusory, which seems to exhibit the first outline of an Arachnidan3 form; it has 2 Symbola Physicæ. 1 See above p. 320. |