INFUSOEIA. 



455 



You ask what is that comparatively large oval body 

 attached by its side to one of the leaves of the plant. 

 It is the egg of some considerable Kotifer, probably 

 EucJilanis, which is always glued to some filament or 

 stem of a water-plant. It may interest you to watch 

 the progress of the contained embryo, which you can 

 readily do, since the egg-shell is as transparent as glass, 

 and the infant animal already displays the movements 

 of independent life. Meanwhile I will tell you the 

 tragical and lamentable history of just such an embryo 

 as this, that was eaten up before it was born, imder my 

 own eye. One of the depredators was a very amusing 

 animalcule, which is sufficiently scarce to make its oc- 

 currence a thing of interest, especially to a young mi- 

 croscopist, as I was at the time. 



A large egg of (as I believe) EucTilanis dilatata had 

 been laid during the night on a leaf of NiteUa, in the 

 live-box. "When I ob- 

 served it, the transpa- 

 rency of the shell allow- 

 ed the enclosed animal 

 to be seen with its vis- 

 cera ; which occasionally 

 contracted and expand- 

 ed ; the place of the mas- 

 tax I could distinctly 

 make out. The cilia 

 were vibrating, not very 

 rapidly, but constantly, on the front, where there was 

 a vacant space between the animal and the shell. 

 From Y A. M., when I first saw it, I watched it for about 

 eight hours, without perceiving any change ; but at 

 that hour, having withdrawn for a short time, I per- 



COLEPS AND CHILOMONAS. 



