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AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
Vol. 1—APRIL, 1867.—No. 2. 
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THE MOSS-ANIMALS, OR FRESH WATER 
POLYZOA. 
PLATE 3. 
BY ALPHEUS HYATT. 
Among all the creatures found in our pools and lakes, 
none are more pleasing to the eye when carefully exam- 
ined, than the Moss-Animals. These delicate animal- 
flowers may be found in communities, expanding their 
shadowy plumes in the darker recesses of our ponds, at- 
tached to the under side of submerged sticks, , logs and 
stones. 
Figures 1, 2, and 3, in the plate, show three of these 
communities. In figures 2 and 3 the plumes are expan- 
ded, but in figure 1 they are withdrawn, as they always 
are when the colony is disturbed. 
The moss-animals of our fresh waters are, with two ex-- 
ceptions, all members of one group, called Phylactolema- 
ta, or animals with guarded throats; that is, having a 
little flap outside of the mouth, Which guards this aper- 
ture. The two exceptions mentioned have not this char- 
acteristic, and, therefore, belong to the same division 
‘Bet, > 
to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by the ESSEX INSTITUTE, in the 
Massachusetts, 
