Page:The Cornhill magazine (Volume 1).djvu/223

 Fig. 13.

A

B

B with the huge nipper-like jaw extended.
 * A ordinary aspect;

Fig. 14.

A

B

, or water snail.

.

Fig. 15.

Continuing our search, we light upon the fat, sluggish, ungraceful larva of the graceful and brilliant Dragon-fly, the falcon of insects (Fig. 13). He is useful for dissection, so pop him in. Among the dead leaves you perceive several small leeches, and flat oval Planariæ, white and brown; and here also is a jelly-like mass, of pale yellow colour, which we know to be a mass of eggs deposited by some shell-fish; and as there are few objects of greater interest than an egg in course of development, we pop the mass in. Here (Fig. 14) are two molluscs, Limnæus and Planorbis, one of which is probably the parent of those eggs. And here is one which lays no eggs, but brings forth its young alive: it is the Paludina vivipara (Fig. 15), of which we learned some interesting details last month. Scattered over the surface of the net and dead leaves, are little dabs of dirty-looking jelly—some of them, instead of the dirty hue, are almost blood-red. Experience makes me aware that these dirty dabs are certainly Polypes—the Hydra fusca of systematists. I can't tell how it is I know them, nor how you may know them