( ^n ) 



eafily feparate it from them, and I faw this performed by three or 

 four others of the animals while I rtayed in the meadow. 



From thefe obiei'vations I concluded that both the animals I have 

 mentioned were of the fame fpecies, btit thofe which I had taken firft 

 were all males, and thofe from which I extracted the eggs were fe- 

 males, the females being of a larger fize, in order to contain the eggs 

 they were to lay ; and that the Iharp points of their tails were of a 

 hard bony nature, and defigned to penetrate into the moift earth and 

 there depofit their eggs, which otherwife, in my opinion, would be 

 barren. 



On my return home, when I examined the animals I had taken, 

 I found fix of them to be females and ten or twelve males, fome of 

 them were coupled together, which proved them both to be of the 

 fame fpecies ; and it feemed probable to me that the llrong winds, 

 which had prevailed for fome days paft, had brought fome of the 

 females, which had not llrength to refill them, into the town. 



The next day moft of thefe animals were dead, and I concluded 

 that their deaths had been caufed by my handling them too roughly, 

 fb as to break fome of the many veflels in their bodies. 



Fig. 15, N O P Q, reprefents the female of this animal, and at N 

 may be feen how fliarp pointed is the hind part of their bodies, to 

 enable them to depofit their eggs in the earth ; this part is divided 

 into four dittinct parts, as joints, both above and below, which fe- 

 parate and open themfelves. 



The eggs of thefe creatures, of which I have faid that I took more 

 than two hundred out of one parent, are very black, and of fo fmooth 

 a furface that they fliine like black glafs ; they are about twice as 

 long as broad. The thell of them, in proportion to their fize, is 

 very hard and thick, and yet I always found that thefe eggs, whe- 

 ther laid by the animal, when confined, or taken out of their bodies 

 by me, did, in a fliort time, futFer fuch an evaporation of their 

 moifl;ure, that the fiiells were comprefled inwards : which fudden 

 .evaporation I have not obferved in the eggs of much fjnaller infedls. 



Vol, II. Z 



