54 CAPRELLID.I:. 



sists of four plates, two attached to the third, and two 

 to the fourth, segment of the body, arising upon the 

 under surface and the inside of the branchiae. We have 

 observed this organ in various stages of development, 

 from the small pedicle to the shell-like scale. 



The habits of this animal are curious, and repay the 

 naturalist for some patient observation. We have already 

 noticed the parental affection existing between animals in 

 this order and their offspring. In more than one species 

 of this genus similar observations have been made. As 

 soon as the young are old enough to enjoy a separate 

 state of existence they quit the protection of the ovi- 

 gerous pouch in which they have been nurtured, and, 

 passing out, climb, gipsy-like, to the back of their 

 mother, where they may be seen holding on in every con- 

 ceivable attitude. Mr. Goodsir, in writing of this 

 display of maternal care, says : " On one occasion, 

 while examining a female Caprella under the microscope, 

 I found that her body was thickly covered with young 

 ones. They were firmly attached to her by means of 

 their posterior feet, and they were resting in an erect 

 posture, waving about their long antennae with great 

 activity," as represented in the vignette given in a subse- 

 quent page. 



In the national collection is preserved a specimen of an 

 exotic species in which death has not separated the 

 parent from the offspring. They may still be seen 

 attached, as if climbing from the incubatory pouch to 

 the back of the parent. 



They live mostly amongst weeds and submarine 

 growths, and " are as much at home in the tree-like 

 zoophyte as a family of monkeys in their arborial bowers ; 

 and, indeed, their agility, as they run from branch to 

 branch, catching hold of a twig just within reach and 



