History of British Eiitomostraca. 141 



counted for from the specimens which I have examined being dis- 

 sected in the winter months. 



Habits and Manners. — These insects are only to be found in sea 

 water, and may be met with in all the little pools amongst the rocks 

 on the sea shores. They live amongst the fuci and confervse, &c. 

 which are to be found in such pools ; and the naturalist may espe- 

 cially find them in abundance in those beautiful clear little round 

 wells which are so often to be met with hollowed out of the rocks 

 on the shores of our country, which are within reach of the tide, and 

 the water of which is kept sweet and wholesome, by being thus chang- 

 ed twice during every twenty- four hours. In such delightful little 

 pools, clear as crystal when left undisturbed by the receding tide, these 

 interesting little creatures may be found often in great numbers sport- 

 ing about amongst the confervseand corallines, which so elegantly and 

 fancifully fringe their edges and decorate their sides, — and which 

 form such a glorious subaqueous forest for myriads of living creatures 

 to disport themselves in. Sheltered amongst the " umbrageous 

 multitude" of stems and branches, and nestling in security in their 

 forest glades, they are safe from the fury of the advancing tide, 

 though lashed up to thunder by the opposing rocks which for a mo- 

 ment check its advance ; and weak and powerless though such 

 pigmies seem to be, they are yet found as numerous and active in their 

 little wells, after the shores have been desolated by the mighty force 

 of the tide which has been driven in, in thunder, by the power of a 

 fierce tempest, as when the waves have rolled gently and calmly to 

 the shore in their sweetest murmurs. These insects have never 

 been seen to swim, invariably walking amongst the branches or 

 leaves of the confervas or fuci — amongst which they delight to dwell ; 

 and when shook out from their hiding-places into a bottle or 

 tumbler of water they may be seen to fall in gyrations to the bot- 

 tom, without ever attempting to dart through the watery element, 

 as in the case with the Cyprides. Upon reaching the bottom, they 

 open their shells and creep along the surface of the glass ; but 

 when touched or shook they immediately again withdraw themselves 

 within their shell and remain motionless. This inability to swim 

 is no doubt owing to the want of the pencils of long hairs or fila- 

 ments which adorn the antennae and anterior part of the Cyprides, 

 and which we have already seen are the organs by means of which 

 they swim through the watery element in which they live. My op- 

 portunities for observing these insects have been so limited, and 

 the difficulty of keeping them alive, from the rapidity with which 

 sea water becomes putrid when kept in a room in a small vessel, is 



