THE NOTOltMATA- 165 



Here is one whicli may remind us of a guinea-pig in its 

 general outline, but you must suppose the two hind-feet 

 to be changed into a divergent fork, and the fore-feet to 

 be obliterated.* It is a most restless little roonie ; ranor- 

 ing among the filamentous leaves of the Myriophyllum 

 with incessant activity, he now pokes his way through 

 some narrow aperture, using his curious forked foot as a 

 point of resistance, now pauses to nibble among the decay- 

 ing rind, and now scuttles off through the open water to 

 some other part. We see his large eye, shining -ndth the 

 colour of a ruby, and set, like that of Polyphemus, right in 

 the middle of his forehead, and his curious apparatus of 

 jaws, the points of which are protruded from the front of 

 his head, and vigorously worked, when he is grubbing 

 among the decaying vegetable matter, adding continually 

 morsel after morsel to the great mass of yellow-green 

 food, which is already swelling out his abdomen to a pig- 

 like plumpness. And when he swims away and gives a 

 fair view of his back to us, we notice the evolution of a 

 pair of hemispherical swellings, one on each side of the 

 broad head, and which are evidently connected with his 

 locomotion. The whole front is clothed with vibrating 

 cilia, but they are more developed on these organs, which 

 are only pushed out at the will of the little animal, when 

 they form strong vortical currents. 



In another part of the bunch of leaves possibly a group 

 of Salpince may be feeding equally busily. These are 

 something like the former, but their bodies are inclosed 



* Notommata lacinulata. 



