Another rotifer of even greater interest, which was busy among the Cryptomonads, was the Brachion, or "Pitcher Rotifer" (Brachionus). The members of this genus will frequently reward the searcher into pond-life. Their main characteristic is a cup or pitcher-shaped lorica, which is cut or notched at the top into several horns or projections, the number of which indicates the species; while two or more similar projections ornament the bottom. This lorica is like the shell of a tortoise open at both ends; from the top an extremely beautiful wreath of cilia is protruded, and also some longer and stiff cilia, or slender spines, which do not exhibit the rotatory movement. The ciliary apparatus is in reality continuous, but it more often presents the appearance of several divisions, and the lateral cilia frequently hang over the sides. From the large size of each cilium they are very favorable creatures for exhibiting the real nature of the action, which gives rise to the rotatory appearance, and which can be easier studied than described. By movements, partly from their base, and partly arising from the flexibility of their structure, the cilia come alternately in and out of view, and when set in a circular pattern, the effect is amazingly like the spinning round of a wheel. The internal arrangements of the Brachiones are finely displayed, and they have a most aldermanic allowance of gizzard, which extends more than half way across each side of the median line, and shows all the portions described by Mr. Gosse. As the joints of this machine move, and the teeth are brought together, one could fancy a sound of mill-work was heard, and the observer is fully impressed with a sense of mechanical power. When the creature is obliging enough to present a full front view, her domestic economy is excellently displayed. The prey that is caught in her whirlpool is carried down by a strong ciliary current to the gizzard, which may be often seen grappling with objects that appear much too big for its grasp; and Mr. Gosse was lucky in witnessing an attempt to chew up a morsel that did actually prove too large and too tough, and which, after many ineffectual efforts, was suddenly cast out. As soon as food has passed the gizzard, it is assisted in its journey by more ciliary currents, which are noticeable in the capacious stomach, in the neighbourhood of which the secreting and other vessels are readily observed. Just over the gizzard blazes a great red eye, of a square or oblong form, and it reposes upon a large mass of soft granular-looking brain, which well justifies Mr. Gosse's epithet "enormous." Whether this brain is highly organized enough to be a _thinking_ apparatus, we do not know, but it is evidently the cause of a very vigorous and consentaneous action of the various organs the Brachion possesses.