'Whether progressing on the solid surface, or moving through the water, or tunneling the sand, advancing or retreating in its tube, the Annelid performs muscular feats distinguished at once for their complexity and harmony. In grace of form the little worm excels the serpent. In regularity of march, the thousand-footed Nereid outrivals the Centipede. The leaf-armed Phyllodoce swims with greater beauty of mechanism than the fish; and the vulgar earthworm shames the mole in the exactitude and skill of its subterranean operations. Why, then, should the "humble worm" have remained so long without a historian? Is the care, the wisdom, the love, the paternal solicitude of the Almighty not legible in the surpassing organism, the ingenious architectures, the individual and social habits, the adaptation of structure to the physical conditions of existence of these "degraded beings?" Do not their habitations display His care, their instincts His wisdom, their _merriment_ His love, their vast specific diversities His solicitous and inscrutable Providence.'--DR. WILLIAMS. [Illustration: 1 THE POTTER (_Terebella figulus_) 2 _Terebella littoralis_] XII. Having visited the sea-side a few weeks since, along with some 'aquarian naturalists,' among other objects we managed to capture a very fine _Terebella Figulus_, commonly called the 'Potter.' The specimen measured about five inches in length, and was nearly as thick as a common drawing pencil. I could discover no signs whatever of any tube in the rocky basin in which the Annelid was situated, a circumstance that struck me as being rather curious. On returning home, my much-valued prize was placed in a tumbler of large dimensions, the base of which I strewed with newly-pounded shells and gravel. By the following morning all the fine or powdered portion of the 'Silver Willies' had been collected and used in the construction of a tube, sufficient in length to cover half the contracted body of the industrious little mason. After labouring for a fortnight, the tube was gradually extended across the bottom of the vase in a cylindrical form, but eventually it assumed a semi-circular shape, being built upon the glass, and elevated by gentle stages up each side of the vessel until the level of the water was reached, when all further labours ceased for a time.