54: CAPRELLID&. 
sists of four plates, two attached to the third, and two 
to the fourth, segment of the body, arising upon the 
under surface and the inside of the branchia. We have 
observed this organ in various stages of development, 
from the small pedicle to the shell-like scale. 
The habits of this animal are curious, and repay the 
naturalist for some patient observation. We have already 
noticed the parental affection existing between animals in 
this order and their offspring. In more than one species 
of this genus similar observations have been made. As 
soon as the young are old enough to enjoy a separate 
state of existence they quit the protection of the ovi- 
gerous pouch in which they have been nurtured, and, 
passing out, climb, gipsy-like, to the back of their 
mother, where they may be seen holding on in every con- 
ceivable attitude. Mr. Goodsir, in writing of this 
display of maternal care, says:—‘‘On one occasion, 
while examining a female Caprella under the microscope, 
I found that her body was thickly covered with young 
ones. They were firmly attached to her by means of 
their posterior feet, and they were resting in an erect 
posture, waving about their long antenne with great 
activity,” as represented in the vignette given in a subse- 
quent page. 
In the national collection is preserved a specimen of an 
exotic species in which death has not separated the 
parent from the offspring. They may still be seen 
attached, as if climbing from the incubatory pouch to 
the back of the parent. 
They live mostly amongst weeds and submarine 
growths, and “ are as much at home in the tree-like 
zoophyte as a family of monkeys in their arborial bowers ; 
and, indeed, their agility, as they run from branch to 
branch, catching hold of a twig just within reach and 
