134 



MARVELS OF POND-LIFE. 



a power of five hundred diameters the muscles of the 

 tail-foot presented a beautifully striated appearance. 

 Towards the end of the month I passed the Yale 

 of Heath Pond, Hampstead, and although I had 

 not gone out for the purpose of collecting, was 

 fortunately provided with a two-dram bottle. Close 

 by the path the Anacharis alsinastrum grew in 

 profusion, quantities of water-snails crawled among 

 its branches, and small fish darted in and out, 

 threading their mazes with lightning rapidity. 



240 



Scaridium longicaudum. 



Thrusting a walking-stick among the mass of vege- 

 tation, a few little tufts were drawn up and care- 

 fully bottled, with the addition of a little water. 

 Eeturning home, a few leaves were placed in the 

 live-box, and on examination with a power of sixty 

 diameters they disclosed a specimen of, perhaps, the 

 most beautiful of all the rotifers, the Stephanoceros 

 Eicliormi. In this elegant creature an oval body, 

 somewhat expanded at the top, is supported upon 

 a tapering stalk, and stands in a gelatinous bottle. 



