Page:Sea and River-side Rambles in Victoria.djvu/63

44 around was quiet, were withdrawn with great rapidity on their being touched or otherwise disturbed.

The wonderful process of the Terebella multiplying itself by gemmation, described in such a spirited manner in the "Sea-side Studies, (page 61,) is far too interesting not to find a place in our Work;—it is quite a new feature in its history, although it has been long known to occur in nearly allied Annelida, the tail of the Nereis, for instance, being still the tail of its offspring, and however often the body may divide, still the same tail remains attached to the hinder portion, so that this part of the animal may be said to enjoy a kind of immunity from death. "When," says Lewes, "the animal (Terebella) reproduces by this budding process, it begins to form a second head near the extremity of its body. After this head, other segments are in turn developed; the tail or final segment being the identical tail of the mother, but pushed forward by the young segments, and now belonging to the child, and only vicariously to the mother. In this state we have two worms and one tail. It is as if a head were suddenly to be developed out of your lumbar vertebrae, yet still remain attached to the column, and thus produce a double-headed monster, more fantastic than fable; or suppose you were to cut a caterpillar in half, fashion a head for the tail half, and then fasten this head to the cut end of the other half—this would give you an instance of the Syllis budding. But in some worms the process does not stop here. What the mother did, the child does, and you may see at last six worms forming one