74 Marvels of Pond- Life. 



tion of special points. Pritchard notices three species 

 of CarchesiuMj and eighteen of Epistylis ;^ some of 

 which it is to be hoped will turn out to be only varie- 

 ties. 



Towards the end of this month rotifers abounded, and 

 polyps were plentiful. Among the rotifers was one 

 about a two-hundredth of an inch long, protected by a 

 carapace, and having a tail terminating in a single style, 

 hence called " Monostyle." There is perhaps no class 

 of creatures that present so many curious and unex- 

 pected forms as the rotifers; and although we have 

 noticed a good many, there are far more that remmn to 

 be found and described. 



The water in which the preceding animals dwelt was 

 enlivened by the jumps of the Halteria, a little globe 

 surrounded by long fine cilia, with which its movements 

 were effected ; and its companion was the Aspidisca 

 lynceus, an oval animalcule, having a distinct cilia or 

 lorica, and furnished, in addition to cilia, with bristles, 

 which enable it to walk and climb as well as swim. 



There were also some eors^s of rotifers attached to the 

 water plants, in which motion could be descried at inter- 

 vals, and a little red eye observed. These eggs are 

 always large in proportion to the creatures that 

 lay them, and if they escape being devoured by 



* An interesting Epistylis, called Digitalis, from its bells resembling 

 fox-glove flowers iu shape, occurs as a parasite upon the Cjclops quadri- 

 cornis, a very common entomostracan in fresh-water ponds. At this 

 moment I have a beautiful specimen, branching like a bushy tree, and 

 attached to the tail of a Cyclops, who can scarcely move under his 

 burden, which is like Sinbad's " Old Man of the Sea." 



