COLLECTING ANIMALCULES. 



89 



eye, leisurely picked out with a small thin spoon or palette 

 knife, and transferred to bottles, care being taken that the 

 more voracious ones be separated from their prey ; while 

 the thick residuum, containing infusoriae, &c., may be 

 ladled up, or strained off into its appropriate vessel. On 

 arriving home, the contents of the bottles are poured into 

 one of the finer nets, which is placed in a saucer of water ; 

 the drafting-net is then lifted up out of the water, and a 

 final classification must be made. To catch individual 

 creatures that are too large for a fishing-tube, a small 

 spoon-net, made of slips of thin metal, bent into the form 

 of a spoon, with a large hole punched out of the bowl, 

 and muslin cemented to the rim, will be found convenient. 

 This form of net is free from the inconvenience of loose 

 parts of material, in which choice specimens may be con- 

 fused and lost." 



Fig. 55 is a box containing six bottles for holding the 

 animalcules when caught. These bottles should be filled 

 with the water when you collect 

 the animalcules, and the larger 

 put by themselves. When 

 collecting from different locali- 

 ties, take care not to mix the 

 animals from one brook with 

 those from another, otherwise 

 serious conflicts may take place, 

 and on reaching home you will 

 find the greater part of your 

 stock either dead or dying. Al- 

 ways separate the various sizes 

 and races as speedily as possible. 

 This can be done most easily by emptying each bottle in its 

 turn into a soup-plate ; then with the feather of a pen 

 first lift out the smaller ones, and with the quill-end cut 

 like a scoop lift out the larger, classifying and allotting each 

 species to its separate "fish-pond." 



The best localities in the neighbourhood of London for 

 collecting, are Epping Forest, Hampstead Heath, and 

 Blackheath. 



Mr. Williamson uses a cheap and simple contrivance for 

 converting the end of a walking-stick or umbrella into 



Pig. 55. 



