Naturalists, and possibly the specimens also, do not always agree in the number of lobes assigned to the "Beautiful Floscule," and although it is easy enough to count them in _some_ positions, the observer may have to exercise a good deal of patience before he is certain whether they are five or six. For a long evening only five could be discerned in the specimen now described, but the next night six were apparent without difficulty or doubt. The hairs also will not appear anything like their true length or number, unless the object-glass is good, and great care is taken not to obscure them by a blaze of ill-directed light. [Illustration: Chætonotus larus (swimming).] After the Floscules had been sufficiently admired and put aside, for observations to be repeated on future occasions, a Rotifer attracted attention by his merry-andrew pranks, throwing himself in all directions by means of two long and extremely mobile toes attached to his tail-foot. Then came a creature swimming like an otter, thrusting his head about on all sides, and looking much more intelligent than most of his compeers of the pond. Looked at vertically, he was somewhat slipper-shaped, the rounded heel forming his head, then narrowing to a waist, and expanding towards the other end, which projected in a fork. All round him were long cilia, which were conspicuous near the head, and a fine line indicated the passage from his mouth to the stomach, which seemed full of granular matter. Presently he took to crawling, or rather running, over a thread of conferva, and then his back was elegantly arched, and his cilia stood erect like the quills of a porcupine. This was the _Chætonotus larus_. [Illustration: Chætonotus larus (crawling).]