102 Marvels of Pond-Life. 



muscles of the tail-foot presented a beautifully striated 

 appearance. 



Towards the end of the month I passed the Vale 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. Thrusting a walking-stick among the mass 

 of vegetation, a few little tufts were drawn up and care- 

 fully bottled, with the addition of a little water. 

 Returning home, a few leaves were placed in the live- 

 box, and on examination with the power of sixty dia- 

 meters they disclosed a specimen of, perhaps, the most 

 beautiful of all the rotifers, the Stephanoceros Eichornii. 

 In this elegant creature an oval body, somewhat ex- 

 panded at the top, is supported upon a tapering stalk, 

 and stands in a gelatinous bottle, composed of irregular 

 rings superimposed one upon the other, as if thrown off 

 by successive efforts, the upper ones being inverted and 

 attached to the body of the animal. But that which 

 constitutes the glory of this little being is the crown of 

 five tapering tentacles, each having two rows of long 

 cilia arranged on opposing sides, but not in the same 

 plane. The ordinary position of the tentacles is that 

 of a graceful elliptical curve, first swelling outwards, 

 then bending inwards, until their points closely approxi- 

 mate, but each is capable of independent motion, and 

 they are seldom quiet for many minutes at a time. 

 The cilia can be arranged in parallel rows or in tufts 



