Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu/667

Rh the wonderful visions presented to us by the greatly improved microscopes of to-day!

Although Melicerta ringens was known so long ago, yet Mr. Gosse was the first to describe the manner of its building its abode. The few who have made these microscopic creatures a study have recorded their labors in many volumes, scarcely attainable to the ordinary lover of natural history.

The animals figured and described here are as seen through a binocular microscope, with a magnifying power of 160 diameters. This power enables us to clearly define each separate brick in the tube of Melicerta, and to note the firmness and regularity of the structure. Although built of round bricks, yet it is so constructed that there are no interstices or spaces between. No bird, no other animal, not even man himself, can excel the beautiful workmanship of this tiny creature, scarcely visible to the naked eye, yet, under the microscope, assuming vast proportions. She not only builds her house, but manufactures her own brick, and lays them up one by one with no workmen to assist. The house is usually attached to some water-plant; but I have seen the young ones, upon a few occasions, anchor their dwellings to the parent-house.

When the animal is resting, or is in any way disturbed, she settles down in the lower part of the tube; but, when all is quiet and she is in good working condition, with no nursery of young ones around her, she is pretty sure to reward us with the sight of her four beautiful wheels, which she sets in rapid motion, thus forming a swift current which brings the food and the material for the brick close to her head; and she has the power of selection, for she often rejects particles brought to her mouth. The apparatus for moulding the brick is within the body. The material is brought through the action of the wheels to a small opening, where it is passed down to the apparatus, which is in rapid, whirling motion, soldering the particles together until they become, seemingly, a solid ball; now she ejects the brick from its mould, bends her head over, and. securely places it on top of the structure. It takes her about three minutes to manufacture each brick.

Finding one with a tube so long that only a part of the flower-like head could appear above the battlement, I cut about one-third of the tube away, replaced it under the microscope, and watched for the reappearance of the creature. She soon came forth, and, rather hastily, rushed up beyond the decapitated story of her house until she reached her accustomed height, when she began to unfold her petal-like lobes. Now, evidently for the first time aware of something amiss, she shot back into her house much quicker than she came up. This she repeated several times before seeming to have courage to investigate; at last she set her wheels in motion, and threw herself from side to side—quite nervous-like—not seeming to relish the situation, or really