Bibliographical Notice. 143 



of uatural history so interesting, so new, and as yet only sketched in 

 outhne, may be rendered as perfect as it merits to be.' They will ; — 

 but here we must fancy the enthusiastic old gentleman, in the exu- 

 berance of his delightful anticipations, flinging his hat and spectacles 

 into the air ; and could he but have added, ' they will have aquaria 

 wherein to keep them alive,' his well-powdered peruke would, as we 

 may imagine, have speedily followed them in his frantic exultation." 



Where ail the descriptions are equally admirable, it is difficult to 

 select any example of the descriptive powers displayed by our author ; 

 but the following account of the appearance and manners of Cijdippe 

 pomiformis will furnish the reader with a fair specimen of the style 

 in which this department of the work is executed : — 



"Amongst all the elegant forms of the Medusae none can compete 

 with the Bero'e {Cydippe) pomiformis, or emulate the wonderful 

 machinery whereby it frolics in the glassy water. In the bright sun- 

 shine, on the level sand, just where the gentle ripples ' kiss the 

 shore, then sleep in silence,' the observant eye may sometimes see a 

 pearl — for such it looks to be — worthy of being a pendent to the 

 one dissolved by Cleopatra, — but so frail, so delicate, so evanescent, 

 that it must be taken up with tenderest care by those who would 

 survey its beauties, and at once transferred into a vessel filled with 

 its own element. Its body is then seen to be a little globe of clearest 

 crystal, tinted with the hues of Iris, and, moreover, fringed from 

 pole to pole with eight transparent bands of active cilia rapidly at 

 work, by the aid of which it glides along, advancing like a meteor 

 through the water. 



"It is, however, when the Beroes have just been taken from the 

 sea that they exhibit in the highest perfection their locomotive 

 powers, and display in the bright sunshine the splendid iridescence 

 of colouring caused by the action of their cilia to the greatest ad- 

 vantage. As they wheel onwards, rising and falling at j)leasure, and 

 creating in their course the glory by which they are encircled, they 

 seem indeed 



'gay creatures of the element, 



That in the colours of the rainhow live.' 



"The variety of their evolutions constitutes one of their principal 

 charms. Sometimes they will ascend from the bottom of the jar to 

 the surface of the water with a slow and regular movement resembling 

 that of a balloon, and descend at the same rate of progression. Again, 

 they will rise more rapidly, and turning their mouth downwards, 

 descend with equal rapidity. At other times, without rising or fall- 

 ing, they will revolve on the transverse axis of their body — then, 

 abandoning all these modes of progression, they will revolve on their 

 longitudinal axis, holding the body vertical, and in this position 

 twirl round and round the glass hke graceful waltzers. ^Vhen the 

 movements of the animal are thus varied, how great must be the 

 variety of motion in the cilia by which the body is propelled 1 Never 

 for more than a second or two do the cilia cease to vibrate. Even 

 then it is not a total suspension, but a slower and alternant action, 

 that is exhibited ; the cilia on one or two contiguous bands remain 



