198 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



again able to get out in search of shells where there was no snow. 

 So I walked towards Sutton Down, and on the banks of a lane found 

 several Helix cantiana, H. rufescens, and H. virgata, two Bulimus 

 obscurus, and one C, rugosa. March 14th. — Collected some more 

 specimens from the decaying vegetation on the bank of the lane near 

 Sutton Mandeville. I found six specimens of Helix cantiana and 

 one Neritina flioviatilis. This seems rather strange, as the nearest 

 river is the Eiver Nadder, flowing in the valley at least two miles 

 away. — H. E. J. Biggs. 



INFUSORIA. 

 Abnormal Reproduction in Stylonychia. — It is a well-known fact 

 that in nearly all the ciliated protozoa, reproduction is effected by 

 division into two daughter-cells, similar in size, and largely so in 



Fig. 1.— x120. 



Fig. 2.— x250. 

 a, as first seen, b, ten minutes later. 



structure. Budding and spore-formation is very uncommon, and is 

 indeed confined to a few groups. For this reason, peculiar interest 

 necessarily attaches to any case in which gemmation can be shown 

 to occur in a species which has been previously held not to be guilty 

 of such a breach of the general rule ; as is (to the best of my know- 

 ledge) the case with the various species of Stylonychia. On Decem- 

 ber 1st last I was engaged, during an interval between some experi- 

 ments, in the examination of a number of Stylonychias, when my 

 attention was drawn to a large individual which had attached to its 

 posterior end the curious excrescence shown in Fig. 1. The Sty- 

 lonychia was somewhat misshapen and unhealthy, and I naturally 

 at first took the small organism (for such the excrescence proved to 

 be) for a parasite. Closer examination showed, however, that the 

 two organisms were really one. The small one, as can be seen, was 

 pear-shaped, and consisted of granular protoplasm, similar to that 

 of the large individual ; there was also a vacuole (v, fig. 1) of con- 



