Zoology.'] NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. ^Annelida. 



Templeton's agreed wtli tlie introduced one be had examined, in 

 having very numerous distinct papillae, each with a seta, on each 

 ring, concluded that the Megascolex and Perichceta were identical, 

 but in the same localities in Victoria in which the present Giant 

 Earth-worm occurs, I also find a true Perichceta (P. Gippslandica) 

 (McCoy) in abundance, of the much smaller size, fewer rings, and 

 with very numerous large papillae and setae going entirely round 

 the rings (visible to the naked eye) of the described species of true 

 Pericliceta. 



On the first entry of the surveyors into that paradise of land 

 selectors, the Brandy Creek district, on the new Gippsland line of 

 railway, I received from them numerous specimens of this gigantic 

 Earth-worm, with queries as to whether it were a snake or a worm, &c. 

 All of them, from the great diameter of the digestive tube, were 

 almost like small membranous sausage-skins filled with earth, and 

 from their great brittleness each individual was usually received 

 divided into several pieces, the broken ends of which contracted so 

 strongly as almost to close the wound, and decomposition setting 

 in so rapidly that very little of the essential characters could be 

 made out. Although I have more recently examined numerous 

 perfect examples, both living and in spirit, I cannot find any male or 

 female genital pores, such as are so conspicuous in Perichceta^ the 

 former between some rings on the ventral surface in front of the 

 " cingulum," and the latter behind it. 



The living worms emit an odor resembling that of creosote. 

 Like the ordinary earth-worms they bm'row in the earth, swallowing 

 the portion in front as they bore downwards, casting the portions 

 from which they have abstracted the nutrient particles on the 

 surface of the ground, renewing the surface by a kind of natural 

 trenching which tends to liury the surface beneath a continual top- 

 dressing of fresh soil from below. 



I have recently received from Mr. Search several examples from 

 Queensferry of the oval, tough, horny case or capsule, 2 to 3 

 inches in length, half an inch wide, and terminated liy a bunch 

 of filaments at one end, and a shorter pointed extension at the 

 other, in which the young worm of this species is enclosed, nearly 

 agreeing with that of the common earth-worm of Europe, except 



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