THE society's NOTE-BOOKS. 77 



squashed on Mr. Tait's slide. It seemed decidedly averse to being 

 introduced to the daylight, and was woefully stubborn, for no 

 amount of gentle titillation applied to the region where his tail 

 would have been if he had one would induce him to move for- 

 ward, but when the straw was applied to his head he wriggled 

 himself backwards. 



His appearance and demeanour suggested thoughts of the 

 "amoosin' little cuss " of Artemus Ward. My guide (Emile was 

 his name) informed me that they always travel backwards, and 

 that when their little pit gets destroyed by being filled up with 

 loose sand that they reconstruct it again by jerking out the sand 

 by bending their abdominal segment under them, and then relax- 

 ing it again with some force. In this way they form their little 

 pits in about a couple of hours, and then bury themselves in the 

 sand below, only leaving the points of their mandibles exposed. 



Any ant or small insect which unwarily passes over the brink 

 of the little pit slides into it as the loose sand gives way beneath 

 it, and it has nothing to which it can cling. " Facilis descetisus 

 dvernt." It is easy to get in, but hard to get out. The horrid 

 mandibles grip him, a struggle ensues ; but it is soon over, and the 

 plump body of the ant is soon reduced to the condition of a 

 sucked orange. These little pits were very numerous at this 

 place, but though I looked for them on several occasions else- 

 where on my travels, I never saw any indications of their presence. 

 They can only construct their pits where there is dry, loose sand 

 or any light soil ; a shower destroys the pits at once, and they can 

 only be reconstructed when the sand becomes dry again. 



J. C. Christie, 



Aulacomnium Androgynum — This moss is found growing 

 rather plentifully on decaying stumps in damp woods. It is one of 

 the AcROCARPUS (terminal fruiting) section, but is very rarely 

 found in fruit. To compensate for this, the male plant in spring 

 sends up a short stalk bearing a number of gemmae (which are 

 analogous to the bulbels of some ferns and flowering plants, as 

 Asplenium bulbiliferu?n, Sileum iigrinutn, etc.). These gemmse, 

 when mature, fall to the ground, and grow up under favourable 

 conditions into plants like the parent one. There is something 

 very remarkable in the fact that this single cell grows directly into 



