Marvels of Pond-Life, 97 



CHAPTER IX. 



SEPTEMBER. 



Microscopic value of little pools — Curious facts in appearance and 

 disappearance of Animalcules and Rotifers — Mode of preserving 

 them in a glass jar — Fragments of Melicerta tube — Peculiar shape 

 of Pellets — Amphileptus — Scaridium Longicaudura — A long-tailed 

 Rotifer — Stephonoceros Eichornii — A splendid Rotifer — Its gela- 

 tinous bottle — Its crown of tentacles — Retreats on alarm — Illumi- 

 nation requisite to see its beauties — Its greediness — Richl)' -coloured 

 Food — Nervous ganglia. 



CATTERED about Hampstead Heath are a 

 number of little pools^ not big enough to be 

 dignified by the name of ponds. They are 

 generally surrounded by furze bushes, and would escape 

 attention if not actually looked for. Those which are 

 mere puddles, and have only a brief existence in rainy 

 weather, seldom reward the labour of investigation ; 

 but others are permanent, except after prolonged 

 drought, and afford convenient situations for the 

 growth of confervse, star- weed, and other plants. These 

 will nearly always repay the microscopic collector 

 during the winter, when he must break the ice to get 

 at their contents; in spring, when long chains of frog- 

 spawn afford ocular evidence of the prolific properties 



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