MICROHYDRA DURING IQ07. 99 



watchful ; lying perdu, perhaps, but with head erect and 

 fearless, where we have now placed it ready to catch a gnat 

 and at least attempt to " swallow a camel." 



On a former occasion a hydroid had been seen in the act of 

 swallowing one of the largest class of Angidlhdidce , probably 

 much longer than itself, that slipped down its gullet, dissolv- 

 ing as it went, suggesting the similar disappearance of a stick 

 of candy in the mouth of a small boy. On June 29th, 1907, 

 while glancing over some mature h^^droids that had fixed 

 themselves upon the side of a jar, attention was drawn to a 

 something; drawn into, or exuding from, the mouth or a mouth 

 of a bicapitate form, that at once claimed closer study. 

 Removing the jar to the "microscopic observatory," I discov- 

 ered that my hero had actually captured one of the setigerous 

 worms that had been frequently seen crawling or swimming 

 around it, and that was now disappearing descensus averni. 

 A movement in one of the lower sections of the captured 

 worm proved to be a little turtle-backed rotifer, still living. 

 It had been swallowed b}- the worm before its own capture, 

 and was now being pushed backward by the narrowing gorge 

 it was approaching until it was eventually forced out through 

 the vent of its iirst captor with life and strength enough to go 

 on its wa}^ rejoicing. 



June 30th. The microscope and jar were left in position 

 over night, and the first peep through them this morning 

 showed the two heads in a condition of quiet watchfulness, 

 soon to be rewarded by the capture and deglutition by the 

 same branch of a similar chcetopodal worm ; the whole of 

 which action I watched until its completion, one and a half 

 hours later. This worm, like the other, had been, in its 

 extended condition, much longer than the branch of the 

 hydroid that "took it in," and about one-half its diameter. 

 When first seen it lay in front of the hydroid, reaching toward 

 it with extended head, and, immediately upon touching one 

 or more of its palpocils, the spasmodic jerks that followed 

 the injection of poison were not successful in liberating it, 



