ON PEliALION MIRA. 333 



On Pedalion Mira. By C. T. Hudson, LL.D. 

 (With Plate XIX). 



In the summer of last year I had the good fortune to find 

 a new rotifer with six limbs, and imder the name of 

 Pedalion mira I described and figured it in the September 

 number for that year of the 'Monthly Microscopical Journal.' 

 I had not, however, at that time sufficient leisure to investi- 

 gate its internal structure ; and when I had the leisure, the 

 creatures had all disappeared, greatly to my vexation, for on 

 the publication of my paper I had many inquiries about 

 Pedalion, accompanied with requests for a few living speci- 

 mens. I could only reply that the rotifers had vanished, and 

 that I hoped to find them in another year — an answer as little 

 satisfactory to myself as to my correspondents, especially 

 when it was evident from some of the letters that the Avriters 

 had a half suspicion that Pedalion Avas not a rotifer at all, 

 but some Entomostracous larva. I had every reason, there- 

 fore, for keeping a keen watch on the pond where I had 

 found these strange creatures. I was certain that they ivere 

 rotifers, for I had seen within them organs very similar to those 

 of Triarthra ; still it would be very mortifying not to be able 

 to produce the animal alive to the satisfaction of all inquirers ; 

 and again and again did I contrive that my daily walk 

 should take me past the, to me, highly interesting though 

 rather dirty pond, which held my rotiferous hopes. 



Imagine my disgust when on one of these rambles I spied 

 a black retriever in a high state of decomposition in the 

 middle of the j)ond ! In a very large body of water it might 

 not have been of much consequence, — that villainous corpse 

 in the Ser]5entine might have afforded such excellent 

 nourishment as to convert six-legged rotifers into ten-legged 

 ones — but to pitch it into a pond not fifteen feet square ! 

 Oh ! my Pedalions ! 



" What ! all niy pretty chickens and their dam, 

 At one fell swoop 1" 



For a long time 1 thought my worst fears had been 

 realised. June came and passed without my finding any 

 but the commonest species. Synchteta seemed to thrive on 

 the generous diet, but not a solitary specimen of Pedalion 

 was to be had, even in the first week in July. So I gave up 

 the search and went down to Ilfracombe ; and, as our 

 steamer pitched and rolled through Porlock Bay, I could 



