24 THE BOTIFEEA. 



auricles can, at will, be protruded from the head, and I believe there is a small appressed 

 antenna. The cloaca is very manifest, overhung by a minute wart-like projection. Then 

 the foot tapers rapidly, ending in small, sometimes very minute, furcate toes, which 

 about mid-length lessen abruptly, leaving a marked shoulder (fig. 16). 



I am indebted to Mr. Bolton for many specimens on repeated occasions. P.H.G.] 

 Length, -^ inch. Habitat. A ditch in Button Park, Birmingham (P.H.G.). 



N. BRACHYOTA, Ehrenberg. 



(PI. XVII. fig. 1.) 

 Notommata brachyota . . . Ehrenberg, Die Infus. 1838, p. 435, Taf. li. fig. 3. 



[SP. CH. Brain clear; body/zm/orw; auricles small; foot invisible; toes minute; 

 no tail. 



Outline rounded and plump, stout in the middle, tapering to each end. The face is 

 obliquely prone ; a pair of very small auricles are thrust out from the sides of the head, 

 occasionally, when pushing between stalks of Nitella, and not only when swimming. 

 Fore and hind extremities hyaline, but corrugated longitudinally. Mastax large and 

 round ; mallei strong, of several teeth, on a long-stalked incus, much on the pattern seen 

 in N. aurita, which worked vigorously and perseveringly, boring its way into a Nitella 

 stalk, and nibbling till it had cleared a great space of its green pulp-cells. The eye-spot 

 is moderately large, of full crimson. This, in an instant's good view, I discerned to be 

 a regular globe, of which only the hinder half was red, the anterior half being quite 

 colourless ; the two halves being distinctly divided by a clean line (fig. 16). The clear 

 half was doubtless a crystalline lens of very perfect form and of powerful magnification. 

 This eye is seated near the end of a long occipital brain. I could detect no dark spot, 

 on each side of the eye, as figured by Ehrenberg ; but have little doubt of the species. 

 A great sacculate stomach comes up, as a brown granular mass, to the mastax, furnished 

 with the usual pair of ear-like gastric glands. It reaches, without any manifest division, 

 nearly to the clear space around the base of the foot ; a contractile vesicle intervening. 

 The foot is scarcely distinguishable, the pair of very minute conical toes apparently 

 emerging from the rounded end of the body. No projection could be called a tail. It 

 was not till I had watched the creature a considerable time, actively engaged, that I 

 suspected the head to be other than simple in outline. Then, as it was swimming 

 smoothly, I noticed its motion suddenly augmented ; and at the same instant I saw that 

 two minute clear semi-globes were extruded, but only for a few moments ; then with- 

 drawn, and no trace left. The absence of these organs, therefore, must not confidently be 

 inferred from the non-observation of them, particularly in species inadequately observed. 

 The plump body seems very soft, compressible, and flexible ; the integument thin, 

 elastic, and yielding. The animal is eager, impatient, persevering, pushing everywhere. 

 It really seemed to have some sense of locality, which its perfectly-formed eye might 

 assist. For though it often strayed to a considerable distance, beyond many stalks, it 

 invariably returned, and sought out its feeding- ground within the Nitella. I was called 

 away ; but, after nearly two hours, there he was, pegging away at the very same hole! 

 P.H.G.] 



Length, T ^ inch. Habitat. Woolston Pond : rare (P.H.G.). 



N. SACCIGEBA, Ehrenberg. 



(PL XVII. fig. 2.) 

 Notommata saccigera . . . Ehrenberg, Die Infus. 1838, p. 434, Taf. 1. fig. 8. 



[SP. CH. Slender, obtusely pointed at both ends ; face prone, greatly lengthened, 

 ending with a prominent chin ; foot and toes small. 



The form is unusually thin from side to side, compared with the length, widening 



