452 ZOOLOGY. 



basin in which the balani were confined swarming with an 

 innumerable number of extremely minute but very active 

 animals, when it immediately struck us that these must have 

 been the young which the balani were throwing off the day 

 before. On placing one of these animals under the micro- 

 scope, we expected to find one of those mussel-like animals 

 described by Thompson ; but instead of that, it had an almost 

 exact resemblance to the young of the genus cyclops. To 

 make sure that there had been no mistake, one of the adult 

 balani was opened, when the large cavity of the mantle was 

 found to be filled with the granules which we had formerly 

 seen ejected. A few were placed in a watch-glassful of sea- 

 water under the microscope. They were quite motionless, of 

 an ovoid shape, sharper at one extremity than the other. 

 The eye, or rather what was considered to be the eye, 

 was observed a little before the middle line, and near to 

 the superior edge. In the course of a short time, a few 

 began to make some efforts to escape. After they had done 

 so, they were found to resemble, in their external appear- 

 ance, the young cyclopides alluded to above. At first, the 

 efforts to escape were feeble, but latterly they became more 

 violent; and by means of the tail, which was suddenly and 

 forcibly jerked upwards and downwards, the membranes which 

 contained them were burst on the abdominal surface, upon 

 which the young animal escaped. It was some time, how- 

 ever, before the extremities were completely freed. In the 

 course of ten or fifteen minutes after they had been taken 

 from the body of the mother, these young animals were all 

 free, and the empty sacs were lying amongst them. They 

 have a striking resemblance, in their external appearance, to 

 the larvae of the cyclops ; and if we had not had the certain 

 evidence of having seen them taken from the body of the 

 mother, we would have pronounced them young cyclopit Irs. 



' Alter many fruitless endeavours, we found it impossible to 

 preserve them alive for any length of time, and were, there- 

 fore, disappointed in our expectations of seeing them undergo 

 their metamorphoses. We were, therefore, uncertain whether 

 t hey underwent a first and second metamorphosis, and changed 

 first into the mussel-like form described by Thompson, and 

 thru into the parent form, or were simply metamorphosed 

 into the parent form. Seeing that this is a distinct sprrjrs 

 from that described by .Mr. Thompson, it is impossible to 

 decide this question until farther observations have been 

 made. Having been fortunate enough, however, in making 



