384 HISTORY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 
ber of death. Means unseen were employed to lure the 
little sportive animalcules into the well-laid snare. Every 
one of the feelers was fringed with numerous cilia, too mi- 
nute to be seen without the aid of a powerful microscope ; 
and which were constantly in motion, to produce currents 
which might insensibly draw the little infusories ito the 
inner or outer enclosure, like Scylla and Charybdis, prepared 
for their destruction. Let them but touch, in their heed- 
less gambols, one of the extended feelers, and, with the 
suddenness of the lightning’s flash, the whole were closed 
and withdrawn into the cell; and by the very act of with- 
drawal, the cell was shut, and escape rendered utterly im- 
possible ! 
What has been said respecting the beautiful Plwmatella 
may serve to “ point a moral” and to teach us some lessons 
of wisdom. 
We blame not the Plwmatella for catching its prey—it 1s 
guided by instinct in doing so; and even though it had been 
guided by reason, it would have been as little reprehensible as 
the wild Indian, who subsists by his skill in fishing and in 
the chase: and yet it may remind us of those who are deeply 
culpable, and have a fearful responsibility. In looking at 
the beautiful pavilion-like display made by the Plwmatedla, 
