104 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



obvious feature, but great part of the body is concealed. We 

 notice a slender, tapering, rusty-brown tube, up which a long 

 antenna is pushing its way. Cautiously it sweeps the water, 

 groping in all directions, and bending right over the edge of the 

 tube, before its owner's head comes forth. When at length this 

 is seen we can scarcely suppress a laugh, so grotesquely dispro- 

 portionate is the dorsal antenna to the size of the animal. As 

 compensation, the ventral antenna 1 are barely perceptible, if they 

 exist at all. This animal is Ceplialosiphon limnias, and displays 

 a somewhat circular wreath, as well as two red eyes, one on each 

 side of the antenna; it has a long and slender foot. It is the dorsal 

 surface which is arched in this Rotifer ; in other Melicertadae it is 

 the ventral. We shall find yet one more of the same family en- 

 sconced in a dirty-brown irregular tube, needlessly large, as it 

 seems, and looking more like a mass of debris than a structure. 

 This is the house of Oecistes crystallinus, and it compares with 

 that of Melicerta much as a mud hut might with a neat brick 

 villa. The animal's projecting head displays a corona almost a 

 perfect circle in form. There are two very short ventral antennae. 

 The ciliary wreath in action presents the most complete circular 

 wheel we have seen among the Rotifers. For the beauty 

 of this we gladly forgive the animal its inferior architectural 

 abilities. We may, perhaps, light upon a second Oecistes — pro- 

 bably the species longicornis. Its very long antennae are held out 

 like a pair of arms. Its tube is similar to that just described, 

 but a little more compact. One form of trophi prevails through- 

 out the family of Melicertadae— known as the malleo-ramate. 

 On account of its importance, a separate engraving of this type 

 is given in fig. i. Passing our weed along, we next notice an 

 object that much resembles a snake's head with a brush of very 

 long hairs protruding from the mouth. The snake's head, as it 

 opens out, divides the brush into five bunches of most delicate 

 setae of extreme length. The front of the head (or corona) then 

 displays, in most cases, five tapering prominences (the so-called 

 lobes) separated by graceful curves. In some species (not all) 

 the lobes are crowned with round knobs. The dorsal lobe is 

 usually larger than the others. On the knobs the setae are located, 

 but may also continue round the curves. This strange and withal 

 beautiful object is the head of a Floscule. 

 (To be continued.) 



Cuckoos. — On 2nd September a friend of mine took an egg of 

 the Pallid Cuckoo (Cacomantis pallida) from the nest of the 

 English Blackbird, in the Albert Park. The Pallid and Fantail 

 Cuckoos have been rather plentiful near Melbourne this season, 

 eggs of both species having been collected in nests of the White- 

 plumed Honeyeater (Ptilotis yenicillata). — C. French, jun. 



