A Plea for the Roiifcra. 193 



seen stretching out in ribbon-like bundles from the viscera 

 toward the margins of the glassy plates of the lorica. The 

 variety of forms to be found among the Rotifera bids defiance 

 to any description in a paper of such prescribed limits as this ; 

 suffice it to say that in each we find a beauty peculiar to itself. 

 The prevailing colour is white, the tissues of many species being 

 of such transparency that every detail of the internal structure 

 is discerned with the greatest ease, and when to all this, en- 

 closed in a little speck, measuring from .^V to -5^ of an inch, is 

 added the charm of an intelligent activity, of busy purpose, of 

 graceful movements, of variety of character and temperament, 

 of evidence of passions in common with our own, such as those 

 of fear, of pleasure, of various desires, surely it is superfluous 

 to say that in the study of the Rotifera we will find a keen and 

 instructive pleasure. 



But little is known of their habits and life-history, for 

 though they have received some attention from naturalists of 

 various nationalities, these have directed their observations 

 more to the peculiarities of form, and to the internal structure, 

 than to this department. Here then is a tempting field for 

 our energies, surely it is time for us to be up and doing. 

 Neither need we imagine it the only one remaining to us ; 

 numerous and varied as are the forms recorded belonging to 

 the group which have been so ably described and portrayed 

 in that splendid book "The Rotifera," the joint work of 

 Dr. Hudson and the late Mr. P. H. Gosse, without which no 

 library is now complete, the list is far from being exhausted ; 

 in the course of my own limited researches I have met with 

 numbers of new and interesting members of almost every family 

 among them, some of which I have endeavoured to sketch. 



They are to be found in all waters, salt and fresh, but more 

 especially in the latter. Pools, ponds, rivers, streams, tanks, 

 water-butts, all afford good hunting-grounds. Many of them 

 may be caught swimming in clear water, but the greater 

 number delight to frequent small aquatic plants, algae, moss, 

 dead submerged leaves, sedimentous deposits, etc. Most of 

 them are vegetarians in diet, but there is also a carnivorous 

 class who fare sumptuously on dead animal substances, and 

 are to be found within the skins of aquatic larvae, the shells 

 of tiny Hntomostraca, dead flies which have met an untimely 

 fate, and allied objects. There are parasites among them too, 



