74 Marvels of Pond-Life. 



tion of special points. Pritchard notices three species 

 of Carchesium, and eighteen of Epistylis ;* some of 

 which it is to be hoped will turn out to be only varie- 

 ties. 



Towards the end of this month rotifers abounded, and 

 polyps were plentiful. Among the rotifers was one 

 about a two-hundredth of an inch long, protected by a 

 carapace, and having a tail terminating in a single style, 

 hence called " Monostyle." There is perhaps no class 

 of creatures that present so many curious and unex- 

 pected forms as the rotifers; and although we have 

 noticed a good many, there are far more that remain to 

 be found and described. 



The water in which the preceding animals dwelt was 

 enlivened by the jumps of the Halteria, a little globe 

 surrounded by long fine cilia, with which its movements 

 were effected ; and its companion was the Aspidisca 

 lynceus, an oval animalcule, having a distinct cilia or 

 lorica, and furnished, in addition to cilia, with bristles, 

 which enable it to walk and climb as well as swim. 



There were also some eggs of rotifers attached to the 

 water plants, in which motion could be descried at inter- 

 vals, and a little red eye observed. These eggs are 

 always large in proportion to the creatures that 

 lay them, and if they escape being devoured by 



* An interesting Epistylis, called Digitalis, from its bells resembling 

 fox-glove flowers in shape, occurs as a parasite upon the Cyclops quadri- 

 cornis, a very common entomostracan in fresh-water ponds. At this 

 moment I have a beautiful specimen, branching like a bushy tree, and 

 attached to the tail of a Cyclops, who can scarcely move under his 

 burden, which is like Sinbad's " Old Man of the Sea." 



