20 VIKNETTES FROM INVISIBLE LIFE. 



alongside the animal to the bottom, where it is 

 hatched, and the young protected until they quit 

 the parental abode, to which they never return. 

 A young Melicertan is a very different creature 

 from its parent, having two eyes, and swimming 

 rapidly from place to place. This is the period 

 of youth ; free and easy, it travels over its little 

 world. Soon, however, it gets tired of this roving 

 life, and selects some congenial spot on which 

 to build a house, and, having attached itself or 

 literally put its foot down never removes. It is 

 generally some filament of algae or other water- 

 plant to which this attachment is made ; but in the 

 instance before us, as we have seen, the parental 

 dwelling is chosen. The eyes now disappear from 

 ordinary view, being changed from the prominent 

 eye- spot character hitherto presented into ex- 

 quisitely fine crystalline ruby-like points. In this 

 condition, and being, moreover, liable to be en- 

 folded in the large trochal organ which is now 

 developed, they are not easily or often seen, and 

 the general inference is that they have disappeared 

 altogether. 



This, however, is a mistake, as I have often 



