NOTICES OF IRISH ENTOZOA. 67 



species I have obtained it, and also from the golden eye (Anas 

 clausula Lin). 



On the 25th of November last my friend Dr. Hopkirk sent 

 me two specimens of Anas cla?igula, in one of which I found 

 three Entozoa so closely resembling the figures of Echino- 

 rhynchus spharocephalus in Bremser's plate, (' Icones Hel- 

 minthum,' tab. vii. ff. 14 — 19), that I sent Dr. Bellingham a 

 specimen under that denomination. He informed me shortly 

 afterwards that it was what he had been in the habit of con- 

 sidering as Ech.Jilicollis, and on comparing it with the de- 

 scription of that species, I accordingly found it to be so, but 

 for reasons which I shall presently state I cannot help think- 

 ing that Ech. jilicollis and Ech. sphaerocephalus are identi- 

 cally the same. 



On the 14th of the present month in examining a tufted 

 duck sent by my friend Wm. Thompson, Esq., 1 found up- 

 wards of thirty specimens of the same Entozoon. When seen 

 lying in the intestine it resembles a portion of a thick Tcenia, 

 so much is it corrugated transversely. It is found however 

 to be very firmly fixed to the intestine, and on farther exami- 

 nation it is ascertained that while the body of the animal is 

 in the intestinal cavity, the head is on the outer or peritoneal 

 surface, while the slender neck connecting the one with the 

 other passes through the intestinal walls. The outer surface 

 of the intestine hence presents the appearance of being stud- 

 ded with a number of tubercles, as when the Ech. versicolor 

 is present, but with this difference, that many of the tuber- 

 cles are not in immediate contact with the surface, but are 

 appended each to a slender projecting pedicle, one or two 

 lines in length. 



Rudolphi describes this species as being from half an inch 

 to an inch and a half in length ; my largest specimen, which 

 is from the Anas clangula, measures about fourteen lines. 

 He states that in the examination of above thirty speci- 

 mens, he never saw the proboscis exserted, (' Ent. Hist.' i. p. 

 283) ; and again in the 'Synopsis,' p. 327, he observes, — 

 " Echinorhynchus Jilicollis, quemadmodum praecedens (Ech. 

 porrigens) nunquam proboscidem exsertam affert, sed in 

 bullam sive receptaculum et ita quidem retractam sistet, ut 

 nulla encheiresi evolvi possit." I believe that the proper ex- 

 planation of this is, that there is no proboscis to exsert ; and 

 for these reasons. On examining at least a dozen specimens 

 in the microscope, I found first, that the head and projecting 

 part of the neck (or pedicle) are surrounded by a thin layer 

 of peritonmum, which can be readily torn away; under this 

 is a much thicker and stronger envelope, which with a little 



