52 Transactions of the 
striated muscles, some of which pass freely through the cavity of 
the body. 
Among the males figured in the Plate is that of Notommata 
Brachionus, Fig. 6. I found the females, Figs. 1 and 2, of this 
very curious Rotifer for the first time some two years ago, in a large 
rain puddle lying in a woody hollow at the top of Nightingale Valley. 
The pool was not more than two or three yards across, and it was 
often dried up, and very little light could reach it through the over- 
hanging trees ; yet when I first found it, it contained swarms of 
this Notommata, many specimens of large Bursaria, and a few 
half-developed ova of some fresh-water zoophyte. The latter were 
evidently accidental additions to its inhabitants, for none of the 
adult Polyzoa could have survived a single drying up of the water, 
and this pool was often dry for a fortnight at a time. It is hard 
to say how the ova could have got into such a place. Perhaps some 
bird bathing at the edge of Abbot’s Pond (where Plumatella 
repens was then abundant) had entangled the ova in its feathers, 
and had then washed them off again in the pool, or they might 
have been carried there in the coat of a roving spaniel. 
Any way it was curious, for the two places are more than a mile 
apart ; and though stato-blasts might travel a long way without 
injury, it does not seem likely that soft ova could be taken far, or 
could survive after having been dried up. 
On one occasion, when I had been disappointed by finding the 
pool empty, I thought I would try to rear my own Rotifers at 
home ; so I carried away in my tin box a thick sandwich of leaves 
and soil from the bottom of the pool, and put it into an aquarium 
full of soft water. In three days’ time the Notommata made their 
appearance, as I had hoped, though not in any great numbers ; the 
experiment however was rather too successful if all the creatures 
that came to life are to be taken into account ; for one evening I 
saw such a forest of long white worms waving backwards and for- 
wards over the rotten leaves, that I hastily emptied my aquarium, 
and resolved to be contented in future with my pool, no matter how 
often it might fail me. 
The female of Notommata Brachionus is so good an example 
of a typical Rotifer, that its structure requires no further explana- 
tion than that given by Fig. 1, which shows the ventral surface. 
This Notommata has however two peculiarities which are well 
worth notice. First, that its external shape might almost make 
one fancy it a hybrid between a Hydatina and a Brachionus ; for 
it has the peculiar head of the former, and an illoricated body 
tucked up to resemble the lorica of the latter : while in the second 
place the setae and cilia surrounding the mouth, and the funnel- 
shaped cavity leading to it, surpass in number, size, and variety, 
those of any other Rotifer that I have ever seen. 
