62 STUDIES IN ANIMAL LIFE. 



thus with all the influences to which we are sub- 

 jected. 



If a garden wall can lead our vagabond thoughts 

 into such speculations as these, surely it may also 

 furnish us with matter for our Studies in Animal 

 Life. Those patches of moss must be colonies. 

 Suppose we examine them. I pull away a small 

 bit, which is so dry that the dust crumbles at a 

 touch ; this may be wrapped in a piece of paper 

 dirt and all and carried home. Get the micro- 

 scope ready, and now attend. 



I moisten a fragment of this moss with distilled 

 water. Any water will do as well, but the use of 

 distilled water prevents your supposing that the 

 animals you are about to watch were brought in it, 

 and were not already in the moss. I now squeeze 

 the bit between my fingers, and a drop of the con- 

 tained water somewhat turbid with dirt falls on 

 the glass slide, which we may now put on the mi- 

 croscope stage. A rapid survey assures us that 

 there is no animal visible. The moss is squeezed 

 again, and this time little yellowish bodies of an 

 irregular oval are noticeable among the particles 

 of dust and moss. Watch one of these, and pres- 

 ently you will observe a slow bulging at one end, 

 and then a bulging at the other end. The oval 

 has elongated itself into a form not unlike that 

 of a fat caterpillar, except that there is a tapering 

 at one end. Now a forked tail is visible ; this fixes 

 on to the glass, while the body swings to and fro. 



