70 NOTES ON 
bility not inferior to the Boa Constrictor, with 
whose manner they assimilate. It moves its 
head with a sluggish motion, and, when filled to 
repletion, is altogether inactive. The mouth is 
not possessed of any organs for mastication, nor 
has it any weapons of defence. So great is the 
voracity of this creature, that I have seen a 
middle-sized one devour seven Lyncei (similar 
to those shewn at figure 3, in the same plate.) 
in half an hour. Five of these were moving 
about in the first cavity, at the end of that time ; 
the other two, having passed into the second, 
had become exhausted. In the drawing (plate 
8, figure 1), at ¢ c, are seen three of their prey, 
and the refuse of others at d. 
The slow motion of this creature admirably 
adapts it for inspection under the microscope, 
where the motion of an object is always aug- 
mented in the same ratio as the magnifying 
power of the instrument. An amplification, 
equivalent to a lens of about a quarter of an 
inch focal length, is amply sufficient to give a 
general view of its- organization. Its manage- 
ment in the solar microscope requires consider- 
able tact and address, on account of its delicacy, 
as the heat of the sun soon kills it, and sepa- 
rates its parts "in a few seconds, if brought too 
