128 RAMBLES AND REVERIES. 



ventilator, and found that this was the mechanism 

 by means of which the tiny mason constructed its 

 bricks. Diverting a stream of minute particles into 

 a kind of mould, the creature cements them together 

 with a sticky secretion, and in doing so changes 

 their appearance, so that they look like glittering 

 pellets ; then, bending her head, she deposits the 

 brick into its proper place, and so proceeds from 

 the foundation to the battlements, layer by layer, 

 till the lovely tower is complete. 



Professor Williamson tells us that the first layer 

 of pellets is laid, not at the base, but in a ring at 

 about the middle position. " At first new additions 

 are made to both extremities of the enlarging ring ; 

 but the jerking constrictions of the animal at 

 length force the caudal end of the cylinder down 

 upon the leaf, to which it becomes securely cemented 

 by the same viscous secretion as causes the little 

 spheres to cohere." 



The eye-spots in Melicerta are not usually observed, 

 as they are possessed only in a rudimentary form 

 by the younger ones, and disappear as the creatures 

 grow up. 



There is just one other specimen 1 want to 

 describe before I close this chapter. I have never 

 found this particular species myself, but I . have 

 had several opportunities of looking at it in the 

 microscopes of my friends. Any microscopist, 

 however, is almost sure to have at hand a dead 

 specimen mounted on a slip of glass ; and even this 

 inanimate object is very beautiful, and by means 

 of diagrams it is easy to describe with sufficient 



