MARVELS OF THE POND. 



127 



This creature is a brick-maker and an architect, 

 and can construct as elegant an edifice as one might 

 wish to see. It erects itself upon its telescopic foot 

 and thrusts out above its conical tower, the bricks 

 of which sparkle like so many gems, an expanded 



FIG. ZQ.Melicerta ringens. 



head, with four leaf-like structures surrounded with 

 cilia, making, when they are in action, a scene most 

 bewitching to behold. Mr. Gosse was fortunate 

 enough to discover how this tower was made. He 

 observed an organ just above the gizzard which is 

 not always visible, and which he likens to a circular 



