CH.^TONOTUS LARUS. 83 



elegantly arched, and his cilia stood erect like the 

 quills of a porcupine. This was the Chwtonotus 

 larus. 



In Pritchard's ''Infusoria," the views of those 

 writers are followed who rank this animal amongst 

 the Rotifers, and place it in the family Icthidina. 

 To help out this theory, the cilia upon the ventral 

 surface are imagined to form a "band-like rotary 

 organ;" but in truth they bear no resemblance 



Chaetonotus larus, (swimming.) 



whatever to the so-called wheels of the ordinary 

 Rotifers, nor is there anything like the gizzard 

 which true Rotifers present. Ehrenberg treated it 

 as a Rotifer, and Dujardin placed it among the 

 Infusoria, in a particular class, comprehending sym- 

 metrical organisms. The ''Microscopic Dictionary" 

 remarks that its "structure requires further inves- 

 tigation," and while the learned decide all the 

 intricate questions of its zoological rank, the ordinary 



