384 HISTORY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 



ber of death. Means unseen were employed to lure the 

 little sportive animalcules into the well-laid snare. Every 

 one of the feelers was fringed with numerous cilia, too mi- 

 nute to be seen without the aid of a powerful microscope ; 

 and wdiich were constantly in motion, to produce currents 

 which might insensibly draw the little infusories into the 

 inner or outer enclosure, like Scylla and Charybdis, prepared 

 for their destruction. Let them but touch, in their heed- 

 less gambols, one of the extended feelers, and, with the 

 suddenness of the lightning^s flash, the whole w^re closed 

 and withdrawn into the cell ; and by the very act of with- 

 drawal, the cell was shut, and escape rendered utterly im- 

 possible ! 



What has been said respecting the beautiful Phimatella 

 may serve to " point a moral" and to teach us some lessons 

 of wisdom. 



We blame not the Plumatella for catching its prey — it is 

 guided by instinct in doing so ; and even though it had been 

 guided by reason, it would have been as httle reprehensible as 

 the w^ild Indian, who subsists by his skill in fishing and in 

 the chase : and yet it may remind us of those who are deeply 

 culpable, and have a fearful responsibility. In looking at 

 the beautiful pavilion-like display made by the Vlumatella, 



