THE MICROSCOPE. 



209 



to force the soft and plastic body between two algous filaments, or 

 between the cover and the water-weed it shows passion by a quick 

 jerk of retreat and a sullen march in the opposite direction; under 

 other circumstances it is not active. 



It is not a mud loving Rhizopod as most of the shell-bearing 

 forms appear to be. Indeed, are any of the Heliozoans, Acti'no- 

 phrys, Actinospharium, Acanthocystis, fond of the ooze? They seem 

 to delight in gliding across the lily leaves, through the matted 

 tangle of filamentous algae and among the dissected leaflets of 

 aquatic plants. And my impression is that the mud-haunting pro- 

 pensities of the Protoplasta Labosa are more apparent than real. My 

 own observations have taught me that Difflugia pyriformis pierces 



the cell wall of Spirogyra and devours the contents; it is not improb- 

 able that the members of other species and genera have similar food" 

 habits. Heterophrys seems to feed chiefly on vegetal matters. I 

 have not noticed it capture animal food, as I have seen Actino- 

 sph&rium and Acanthocystis, but upon starch granules from a 

 ruptured algal cell it fed greedily. To convey the grains to the 

 body mass the pseudopods that seized them were not retracted, but 

 the granules being surrounded by the sarcode were hurried back 

 through its substance like a procession of submerged skiffs swept on 

 by a rapid current. 



The pseudopodia protrude themselves from any part of. the 

 body, but more abundantly perhaps from the two poles. They fre- 



