148 ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 



gloss, from the base of the bill downwards, on both back and belly, but 

 which varied, as the view was taken from the one side or the other, producing 

 first the greenish gloss alluded to, then a deep brown, then again it would 

 appear like a piece of black velvet, and when viewed in profile, that portion 

 of the wing from where the white patch terminates, to its extremity, has 

 the appearance of a piece of fine black velvet. Perhaps this is not new to 

 ornithologists, but I have never seen it recorded. 



I now come to the last, though not the least remarkable, of the day's arrivals, 

 namely, the curious monstrosity of the Common Earth Worm, (Lumbricus,) 

 with two tails. This will, no doubt, surprise many, yet the thing is; and 

 no wonder that the good folks of Danshillock remarked that "they never 

 saw the like o't." I doubt it not. It has been to them, perhaps, as it has 

 been to many more, in fact, to all who have as yet seen it, a complete 

 nondescript of its kind. As for myself, I must conscientiously say, that 

 though I have times without number delved in the earth, I never yet met 

 anything of a similar sort. And how am I to describe it? I think I may 

 use the old phrase here to advantage, and say, '^That it would puzzle a 

 Philadelphia lawyer to do it justice." However, something must be done, in 

 order that those who may not have an opportunity of seeing the prodigy, 

 may in some measure know what it is like. The animal in its ordinary 

 state, not when at its full stretch, is from seven and a half to eight inches 

 long. At about two, or nearly three inches from the posterior extremity, it 

 branches out in two, thus forming the tails or tags alluded to, and which 

 give it an appearance as if another worm were joined by the middle to its 

 nether end. So far as I have already observed, the double tail is no hinderance 

 to the movements of the animal, either in crawling or in boring into the 

 earth. Each tag has a distinct and perfect extremity of its own, and also 

 moves hither and thither at the will of the possessor, thus shewing that they 

 are in full connexion with the main and principal part of the body. In its 

 motions, the animal assumes many an odd-like figure, and not unfrequently 

 that of a musical fork. 



The next question comes to be, is it a new species? or is it only a 

 common Earth Worm, as I have named it at the outset, which has met with 

 an accident that has made it as it is? Whatever others may think, I am 

 inclined to consider it such, and the most natural conclusion, therefore, which 

 can be arrived at is, that it has been cut or rather slit at one time, by 

 some unaccountable means or other, and whilst thus separated, the skin had 

 again united on each part respectively, thus forming the tails in question. 

 But so finely has the work been accomplished, that one would almost conclude 

 th^t nature had done it herself, and that the worm had been thus produced. 

 But be this as it may, it is a very singular and cmious looking object, and 

 certainly, the individual deserves credit who was the means of bringing it to 

 light, for many would have passed it by unheeded, or, if they had noticed 

 it at all, it would only have been to have crushed it to the earth. 



