To oblige an English correspondent who requested some blocks of stone containing Pholas perforations, the writer, in company with a fellow-student, started betimes for the sea-shore, some four miles' distance. We made for a certain spot, where it was expected the object of our wishes could easily be found. Our equipment consisted merely of a hammer, a bottle, and two chisels, enclosed in a carpet-bag, the better to mask our mission from impertinent curiosity.

On reaching the shore, it soon became painfully apparent that no pieces of rock could be procured of a character at all suitable for a museum. To make matters still more irritating, a breeze arose, and with it came a furious shower of rain, which soon completely saturated our light costume. At such a time it is laughable to note how faint becomes the poetry of practical zoology—how excessively like street puddles are the fairy-grots, as the rock-pools are called; how unsightly the great, distorted anemones look, too, when viewed from beneath a large boulder, where you are crouched in the fond idea that you are thus getting shelter from the rain.

On this occasion, my friend and I, being soaked to the skin, started up from our unpleasant position, and boldly daring the rain to do its worst, proceeded to hunt after any object of interest that might by chance be lying stranded near.

After an hour's search, two objects, among many others of more or less interest, were captured, that fully repaid us for our uncomfortable 'ducking.' The first was an elegant Actinia (A. Dianthus), which seemed to be exquisitely modelled in the finest virgin wax. The second was a specimen of the Laminated Nereis (Phyllodoce Laminosa), a wonderfully beautiful worm!

Fair reader, start not nor curl that rosy lip of thine at the expression, 'beautiful,' being applied to such an humble creature, for indeed the title is a just and true one.

This Annelid is generally found coiled up and attached to the under part of stones situated near low water mark. Its general colour is emerald green, excepting along the centre of the back, which is iridescent, and reflects a brilliant blue, changing into purple and other hues, only equalled in beauty by the enamelled corslet of the brightest beetle, or the flashing tints that dance upon the plumage of the humming-bird.

The body of the P. Laminosa, like that of all other Dorsibranchiate Annelidans, is divided into a consecutive series of rings. Upon either side of each ring is situated a singular appendage, which acts as a gill or branchial organ, by the exercise of which the blood of the animal is effectually purified, and respiration adequately provided for.

When the Nereis is in a state of repose, these gills are laid flat over its back; but in a state of activity they are fully spread out, and act as 'paddles,' by aid of which the animal is enabled to glide through its native element with a graceful serpentine motion.

At the base of each paddle is situated a smaller one, consisting of a fleshy pedicle shielding a fan-like bunch of hairs, each of which tapers to a sharp point. Combined, these hairs or spines form a powerful defensive weapon, which can be extended or retracted at will; and it also serves as an oar, or propeller.

As a noteworthy instance of tenacity of life in the lower animals, it may be well to mention here that I have on various occasions, by aid of the microscope, watched for several minutes the bunch of spines, above alluded to, thrust out and retracted in a single segment cut from the body of the Nereis; and only as the object became devoid of moisture did its beautiful mechanism cease to play.

The specimen now before me is comparatively small, being only twelve inches in length, yet its body contains nearly one thousand lateral appendages, constituting, it must be admitted, a most extensive and wonderful locomotive apparatus.

This Annelid is not a suitable object for the aquarium, on account of its frequent great length, and the consequent likelihood of its getting entangled among stones and rock-work when in search of food.

If the hinder parts be cut off, as has been already hinted, they will exhibit vitality for a considerable period when placed in water, but we are told it is the anterior (?) portion of the Phyllodoce which alone possesses the power of regenerating lost segments; these will be reproduced sometimes at the rate of three or four in a week.

'These creatures,' says a learned author, 'as might be expected from their activity and erratic habits, are carnivorous; and innocent and beautiful as they look, they are furnished with weapons of destruction of a unique and most curious description. The mouth of the Nereis would seem at first to be a simple opening, quite destitute of teeth; but on further examination, this aperture is found to lead into a capacious bag, the walls of which are provided with sharp, horny plates, even more terrible than those which are occasionally to be met with in the gizzards of some of the higher animals. It is not surprising, therefore, that by many anatomists the structure in question has been described as a real gizzard, or by some as the stomach itself. A little attention to the habits of the living Annelid will, however, soon reveal the true character of the organ. No sooner does the creature wish to seize its food than this so-called gizzard is at once turned inside out, in which condition it protrudes from the mouth like a great proboscis, and the teeth, which were before concealed in the interior of the cavity, now become external, and display as formidable an assortment of rasps, files, knives, saws, hooks, or crooked fangs, as any one could wish to see. Let us suppose them, when in this condition, plunged into the body of some poor helpless victim, while at the same moment the proboscis is rapidly inverted and withdrawn; the prey thus seized is at the same instant swallowed, and at once plunged into a gulf where all struggles are unavailing, there to be bruised, and crushed, and sucked at leisure.'

There is a curious fact in connection with these Annelids which is too interesting to be omitted here. I allude to the wonderful manner in which their young are produced by a process that may be called 'sprouting.'

This invariably takes place in the segment immediately preceding the terminal one. When a new animal is about to be formed, the reproductive segment swells, and after a certain time the infant worm is seen growing from the tail of its parent. When sufficiently developed, the offspring detaches itself, and starts life on its own account. Sometimes before the elder born Annelid is fully formed, the mysterious segment produces a second offspring, and, according to Professor Milne Edwards, as many as six young ones may be generated in succession from the same posterior segment, all of which will for some time continue attached to the parent worm.