24 THE EOTIFERA. 



auricles can, at will, be protruded from tlie 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. lb). 



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

 Length, jV i"ch. Habitat. A ditch in Sutton Park, Birmingham (P.H.G.). • < 



N. BHACHYOT.\, Ehrcnbcrg. 

 (PI. XVII. fig. 1.) 

 Nototnmata brachyota . . . Elirenberg, Die Infus. 1S38, p. 43.5, Taf. li. fig. 3. 



[SP. CH. Brain clear ; 'body fusiform ; 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, w-hen pushing between stalks of Nitclla, and not only w-hen swimming. 

 Fore and hind extremities hyaline, hut 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 nibbhng 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 hmder half was red, the anterior half being quite 

 colourless ; the two halves being distinctly divided by a clean line (fig. lb). 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 distinguisliable, 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 fi-om 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, pushmg 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. 1 was called 

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

 P.H.G.] 



Length, -,^5 inch. Habitat. Woolston Pond : rare (P.H.G. ). 



N. sAcciGEEA, Ehrenberg. 

 (PI. XVII. fig. 2.) 

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



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

 ending xuith a prominent chin; foot and toes small. 



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



