84 THE KOTIFERA. 



absence of frontal hooks, and the high position of the cloaca, forbid the latter identification. 

 The form of the tropin ; the very distinct, small, three-sided intestine (a mark by which 

 the species may usually be identified at a glance), and the absence of any tube-proper, 

 make its position in (Ecistes doubtful. Dr. Collins, indeed, who has met with it often, 

 and has sketched it in his Note Book, speaks of its occasionally throwing off irregular 

 mucus ; but this seems scarcely a tube. I have lately had many specimens, and have 

 never seen an approach to a tube. The presence of two eyes, small but conspicuous, 

 and apparently permanent, is noteworthy. They are situated in the neck, moderately 

 wide apart. Dr. Collins, in one example, figures and describes 'them as rather close 

 together and near the edge of the corona, which is unaccountable. 



The corona is a hyaline disk, of beautiful rotundity and of great size, being twice as 

 wide as the body when well expanded ; — shajlowly funnel-shaped, but sometimes taking 

 the form of a lovely glass salver, with slightly raised edge, around which the great ciliary 

 waves play nobly. Turbid matters are sometimes poured off through the minute dorsal 

 notch. 



The rectum may easily be traced, upward from the bottom of the intestine, to the 

 cloaca far above its summit. I have seen an egg, and also feces, discharged, after 

 which the cloaca protrudes lip-like (8J). Around the outside of the corona, investing 

 it to some height, is sometimes seen what seems a vascular tissue of granular yellowish 

 hue (86), apparently movable, whence the specific name. A very good view of the 

 mastax enabled me to see that each hemispheric ramus is crossed by four teeth, nearly 

 parallel, whose points project beyond the edge (8e, 8/). 



I found this fine species near London in 1849, in two examples ; but never saw it 

 again for many years. Within a few months, however, Mr. Hood has sent me water 

 from a pond near Dundee, very rich in forms of Rhizota, among which many specimens 

 of (E. velatus occur. I am tempted to give my ardent correspondent's experience in 

 the procuring of these. It was in the very height of the great snow of early March, 

 in the present year 1880. " I went to the pond to-day to search for velatus — a difficult 

 and hazardous task. The pond is more than twelve feet deep, covered with thick ice and 

 snow. As I knew the exact spot ... I cleared away the snow, and bored a number of 

 small holes in a circle of eighteen inches in diameter ; then thrust down the central 

 plate, which gave me a large hole. I put down my line with sinker and grapnel, but 

 fished a long time with no result. At last a bit of the Myriophyllwn came up, to which 

 I hope you will find specimens attached ; " — as, I am happy to add, I did. 



Length, -,,',„ to 5 V inch. Habitat. The Black Sea, Wandsworth (P.H.G.) ; Sand- 

 hurst (Dr. Collins) ; Dundee (P.H.G. ; J.H.) : rare.— P.H.G.] 



<E. umbella, Hudson. 

 (PI. VII. fig. 4.) 



(Ecistes umbella .... Hudson, J. Roy. Micr. Soc. (1878), vol. ii. 1879, p. 1, pi. i. 

 (Ecistes longipes .... Wills, Midland Naturalist, vol. i. 1878, p.317,pl. v.figs. 1,2. 



SP. CH. Corona large, nearly circular, crossed with thick ribs ; ventral antennae 

 long ; tube loose, very irregular, clay-coloured. 



Mr. F. Oxley sent me, in June 1878, several specimens of this large and handsome 

 species, which he had just discovered in a pond at Snaresbrook, on the leaves and in 

 the axils of a Sphagnum. Its corona is so strengthened by thick ribs as to look some- 

 what like an umbrella. Two of these ribs are very broad, and run across from the 

 ventral to the dorsal side, and when the corona is viewed sideways are seen to project 

 a little above its surface. There is also on either side a branched rib with a triangular 

 space within it like a gusset. When the Eotiferon closes its corona it brings the ribs 

 together, the thinner portions being olded up between them. The thus infolded corona 



