MICROSCOPIC FAUNA. 175 



laria regalis, GEcistes, Stephanoceros Eichornii, and Limnias cerato- 

 phylli. Of course, I need not say that Rotifera vulgaris is to be 

 found, but that creature seems to be present everywhere. 



The Melicerta is too well known, and too long known, to need 

 much from me. But I may say, that I have found the Melicerta 

 in the greatest abundance in the canal. Only that for this, as well 

 as for most Rotifera, you must search among old weed ; search in 

 some quiet, undisturbed place where the dredge has not passed, 

 at least for some months, and where the water is not stagnant. It 

 is interesting to note a Melicertan in different stages of growth, 

 to see its birth as it escapes from the tube of the mother, and 

 swim away free and unattached, until it fixes itself in some spot 

 an hour after its birth, and begins to build its tube, commencing 

 near, but altogether on the weed where it has fixed its foot, and 

 watch the formation of each pellet, which, when the creature is 

 undisturbed, takes about 15 or 20 seconds to form. And, if you 

 supply the water with water tinged with fine indigo or carmine, 

 you will not only see the bricks become red or blue, according as 

 different colouring matter is supplied, but, what is of real impor- 

 tance, you will see the stream of coloured particles passing round 

 the four lobes of the corona, down the buccal funnel, between the 

 horny lips where the particles are crushed between the Mallei, 

 and you can, by the colour trace the particles on their way into 

 the stomach. Hudson, in his work, says, that in the United 

 States, Melicerta occurs in large clusters, a number of young 

 attaching themselves to the parent tube ; and some tubes of these 

 clusters exceed the largest known English specimen. In one case, 

 the tube of the parent was the ninth of an inch long, the tenant 

 must have been one-eighth inch in length, and the author adds 

 that he found this great tube, composed of 6,000 pellets, ranged 

 in 240 rows one above the other. The tube of this Rotifer 

 can be easily seen with the naked eye. 



But, perhaps, the most beautiful of all the Rotifera is the 

 Stephanoceros (Fig. 13). I have found very fine specimens in 

 various parts of the canal, and anyone who has seen a Stephano- 

 ceros in a favourable position, and under a proper light, will think 

 it a strange, lovely, beautiful creature, a small pear-shaped body, 

 with rich green and brown colours within, lightly perched on a 



