42 THE ROTIFERA. 
more slowly. I at last picked the sheltering material to pieces with needles in order to 
be quite sure of the species: for I had not yet had one satisfactory view of it at this 
time. Yet even then it kept obstinately under the floccose, refusing to come out into 
the open, even when its tube was torn up.’’ On another occasion, lately, a striking 
illustration of the fierce appetite of this carnivorous creature occurred to me. One in 
the live-box was driving to and fro in its eager headlong way, when its course was 
suddenly arrested. A Nais worm had been wounded, probably by the pliers in taking 
up the milfoil from the phial, and a cloud of the pale flesh-granules had oozed, and was 
still oozing, out of its side. The Furcularia, aimlessly swimming, had come to the out- 
side of this cloud, and its whole manner was changed instantly. It darted at the mass, 
snapped and snapped again, turning hither and thither, but not leaving the vicinity. 
The sharp rapid momentary projections of the head and of the jaws showed how 
heartily it was enjoying its unexpected meal. This went on for some time; but I was 
called away, and was compelled to leave my hungry little friend at his dinner.—P.H.G.] 
Length, ,/; inch to y}, inch. Habitat. Around London, Dundee, Birmingham, 
Hants, Devonshire, and elsewhere (P.H.G): by no means rare. 
F, eraciuis, Ehrenberg. 
(PL. XIX. fig. 14.) 
Furcularia gracilis 5 ‘ : Ehrenberg, Die Infus. 1838, p. 421, Taf. xlviii. fig. 6. 
(SP. CH. Body slender, compressed, the ventral line making a pronunent angle; 
front rownded; face oblique; toes slender, straight, acute. 
This well-marked little species is of slender form, as its name imports, nearly equal- 
sided, somewhat compressed, occasionally gibbous at the hind-back, the outline of the 
belly concaye, with a salient angle about two-thirds from the head, whence it abruptly 
recedes to the short conical foot. The front is rather small, rounded; the face 
obliquely prone, ample, clothed throughout with cilia. The jomts of the foot are 
not readily separable; the toes, furcate, slender, acute rods, almost straight, are about 
one-fourth as long as the body, and are usually carried parallel. The eye is small, but 
conspicuous, of a vivid crimson, situate as usual in the middle of the very front, at the 
anterior extremity of the brain. A little wart-like projection is seen on the occiput, 
which is probably an antenna. The mastax is long and pear-shaped, containing a 
strongly forcipate incus, of which the fulcrum is evanescent, with a pair of long incurved 
mallei. The rami seem to reach over in a long descending pair of points, probably 
accessory to, but distinct from, the glassy rami themselves. The latter are frequently 
protruded from the oblique face, to bite the flocculent matter, adhering to the moss, 
and to seize atoms with a short snapping action. 
I obtained this species in some abundance, near London, in my early researches, 
among the stems and bracts of a submerged moss. Since that time, it has occurred in 
widely separated localities, never with any notable variation. Its manners are active, 
writhing nimbly along with the toes stretched out behind, but now and then, for an 
instant, widely expanded.—P.H.G.] 
Length, s1, inch to ;1; inch. Habitat. Pools, wide-spread; London; Stapleton 
Park, Yorkshire; Woolston ; Caversham; Cheltenham ; Dundee; Oban (P.H.G.). 
F. cmca, Gosse. 
(Pl. XX. fig. 4.) 
Furcularia ceca . . 6 6 Gosse, Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. viii. 1851. 
[SP. CH. Body cylindrical, the ventral line straight ; front rewnd ; head separated 
by a strong constriction; eye wanting or invisible; toes slender, slightly recurved, 
obtuse. 
