Tield Notes. 301 
dissection. In the case of Astacus, they were fed at intervals 
with earthworms.—Wm. West, Bradford. 
A Method of Obtaining the Glochidia of Anodonta 
cygnea.—Some years ago I had lent to me a specimen of a 
small fish which had been caught with some glochidia attached 
to it. As I wanted it to shew to some students, it occurred 
to me that it might be possible to obtain some without going 
fishing for them on the mere chance of obtaining this embryonic 
stage. In the early months ‘of the year therefore, I collected 
a number of Anodonta, and placed them in two large bowls on 
sinks under taps, and allowed water to constantly drop into 
them. I then procured some dozens of minnows from the 
fishing-tackle shop, and put them with the molluscs. In a 
short time I found that all the minnows had plenty of glochidia 
on their fins and tails. I tried this experiment successfully 
several times.—WwmM. WEST, Bradford. 
—:0:— 
AMPHIBIA, etc. 
Hydra vulgaris and the Tadpoles of Rana temporaria. — 
In our biological laboratory it is a common thing to watch 
Hydra catch species of Daphnia, Cypris and Cyclops. I have 
even seen them gorged with the large red larva of Chironomus 
plumosus, the Hydra, when distended, only having room for 
half of it! (I have a Scylliwm canicula with the hinder part 
of a fish in its stomach and gullet, and the other half projecting 
from its mouth). This Spring I had a fine lot of Hydra vulgaris 
in several large aquaria, and as I had previously had some 
batches of frog’s eggs developing, I placed some of them, 
when about a fortnight old, in the various aquaria, some 
being three or more weeks old in later experiments. On 
looking a few hours later, I was astonished to see several 
of the tadpoles held fast to the sides of the aquarium, they 
kept now and then struggling to escape, and if any succeeded 
in doing so, which was seldom the case, they invariably suc- 
cumbed eventually. These experiments were eagerly repeated 
by a number of students, who seemed more interested than 
when watching the larva of Dytiscus demolish tadpoles. The 
tadpoles were paralysed, they were too large to be engulphed, 
and they finally sank to the bottom, and did not reappear In 
all the other aquaria where Hydra was absent, the tadpoles lived. 
I may here mention that I have reared frogs from the eggs 
every year for a long time. I have also had some large tad- 
poles every year above twelve months old, so that I have been 
enabled to shew them to students at the same time as those 
but a few weeks old. In this case they were kept in aquaria 
without a landing stage.—W™m. WEsT, Bradford. 
Igit Aug, I. 
