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CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HISTORY OF THE 
ROTIFERA, OR WHEEL ANIMALCULES. 
BY PHILIP HENRY GOSSE, F.R.S. 
PART III. 
THE BUILDERS (lIELICERTADJS) . 
0 aspect of natural history is more attractive, none at least 
takes a stronger hold on the minds of general readers, 
unsophisticated with mere technicalities, than that which pre- 
sents the inferior creatures in the exercise of their manifold 
instincts. We are never tired of reading well-authenticated 
narratives of the manners of animals, them “ sayings and 
doings;” them actions in ease and under the pressure of cir- 
cumstances ; their affections and passions towards their young’, 
towards each other, towards other animals, towards man ; their 
various arts and devices to protect them progeny, to shelter 
themselves from the weather, to procure food, to escape from 
them enemies, to defend themselves from attacks ; their inge- 
nious resources for concealment ; their stratagems to find, to 
come up with, to waylay, to overpower them victims ; them 
modes of bringing forth, of feeding, and of training them off- 
spring ; and a thousand other details of what is property called 
their history. 
What materials for reflection, what incentives to praise — 
adoring*, admiring praise — of Him who is maximus in minimis, 
do we discover in a bird’s nest ! How varied, how incongruous, 
in many cases how apparently unsuitable are the substances 
used ; how few and simple are the implements employed : — 
yet how perfectly is the work performed, how completely is the 
object attained ! So compact, so firm, so warm, so tight, so 
well secured, so well concealed ! 
The beaver — which associates with its fellows, to hew down 
with patient toil the massive trees, and then forms, with admirable 
“No knife to cut, no bodkin to insert,” — 
