448 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE 



little creatures that were flitting about found it, and began 

 to assemble round it. These were far too rapid in their 

 movements to allow me to identify them before, or to per- 

 ceive anything else than their swift motion and oval form; 

 but this attraction causing them to become still, allowed 

 me to perceive their singular and beautiful structure. Each 

 consists of an oval vase open at the top, the margin of 

 which is cut into a number of little points; the sides are 

 marked by a series of ribs, which run down longitudinally, 

 and are crossed by other transverse ones; the rounded 

 bottom is furnished with three short points; so that the 

 whole reminded me of a barrel with its staves and hoops, 

 set on a three-legged stool. Within the body, which is 

 colorless, are seen small dark spots, which are probably 

 the stomach- vacuoles. Thus I identified these little bar- 

 rels with Coleps hirtus of Ehrenberg, but I found no record 

 of their carnivorous propensities. One after another 

 whirled into the field, and after a few gyrations became 

 stationary at the head of the half -born Euchlanis, just as 

 I have seen vultures gather one by one to a carcass. Yery 

 soon there were a dozen or fifteen of them, some of which 

 were ever shifting their places, and some were playing 

 around, or revolving on their longitudinal axis. I found 

 that their object really was to prey on the soft parts of 

 the creature just excluded from the egg; for by carefully 

 watching one, I distinctly perceived particles of the flesh 

 fly off, as it were, and disappear in the body of the Coleps. 

 The appearance was that of steel-filings drawn to a magnet, 

 for the mouth of the Coleps was not in actual contact with 

 the flesh; and therefore, I suppose, the surface having 

 been in some way ruptured (which I could see it was), 

 the loose gelatinous atoms were sucked off by a strong 



