^N. pelagica.^ Found in abundance on the New England shore and northern coasts under stones and on shelly bottoms. The female is four to five inches long, while the male is only two inches in length. In this species the body is widest in the middle, while in other species it is widest at the anterior end. The palps are long, and the second head-piece (peristomium) is twice as long as the next segment. The color is reddish-brown and iridescent. [Illustration: /Nereis limbata./ Male, anterior part of body, head and extended proboscis.] ^N. limbata.^ Five to six inches long; jaws light yellow, sharp, and slender; parapodia and bristles smaller on the anterior than on the posterior end; color dark brown, with light lines on the sides and appendages, pale red on the posterior end; dorsal blood-vessel apparent, and the heart-like pulsations can be distinctly seen. The male worm is red in the middle section. Found along the middle Atlantic coast on sandy shores. FAMILY ~NEPHTHYDIDÆ~ In this family the worms have a long, thick, flattish body, a section of which has a quadrangular form. The lobes of the parapodia are widely separated and fringed [pg178] with membrane, appearing like double parapodia. The pharynx is very large and projected as in /Nereis/. GENUS ^Nephthys^ ^N. ingens.^ Sometimes six inches long and one quarter of an inch broad; usually smaller; color whitish, with red blood-vessel showing on dorsal side; appendages dark blown; moves actively and burrows quickly into the mud; when captured often breaks off a portion of the posterior end, which it is able to reproduce; proboscis large; branchiæ between the dorsal and ventral parapodia. Found burrowing in all kinds of mud on the New England coast. [Illustration: /Nephthys ingens./ Anterior part of body and extended proboscis; ventral view. Enlarged.] ^N. picta.^ More slender than /N. ingens/; color whitish, mottled with brown on the dorsal anterior end; often a dark line down the back; head square in front and triangular in the back. Found in sandy mud at low-water mark. FAMILY ~EUNICIDÆ~ These are beautiful worms, having a reddish-brown iridescent body, with bright-red branching gills, which look like feathers, along the back. They form parchment-like tubes. GENUS ^Marphysa^ ^M. sanguinea.^ Length six inches or more; color bronze or brownish-red and iridescent; has bright-red branched gills and six caudal cirri of different lengths; body flattened, except at the anterior end, where it becomes narrow and cylindrical; has powerful jaws. It is found under stones and in clefts of rocks at low-water mark, or more commonly in parchment-like tubes on shelly beaches, from Cape Cod to New Jersey. GENUS ^Diopatra^