Marvels of Pond-Life. 107 



CHAPTER X. 



OCTOBER. 



Stentors and Stephanoceri — Description of Stentors — Mode of viewing 

 them — Their abundance — Social habits — Solitary Stentors living in 

 Gelatinous caves — Propagation by divers modes — Cephalosiphon 

 Limnias — A group of Vaginicolse — Changes of shape — A bubble- 

 blowing Vorticella. 



CTOBER, the finest of our autumn months, is 

 noted for usually granting the inhabitants of 

 our dripping climate about twenty pleasant 

 sunshiny days, and it is probably on this account some- 

 what of a favourite with the infusorial world, although 

 the cold of its nights and early mornings thins their 

 numbers, which reach a maximum in the summer heat. 

 Even in the dismal year 1860, October maintained its 

 character, and afforded a great many opportunities of 

 animalcule hunting, during which a constant supply of 

 Stephanoceri were readily obtained, together with 

 swarms of Stentors, which are not exceeded in interest 

 by any of the Ciliated Protozoa. The Stentors were 

 abundant on the same weed (Anacharis), that formed 

 the residence of the Stephanoceri, and might be seen 

 in large numbers hanging from it like green trumpets, 

 visible to the unassisted eye. In the ' Micrographic 



