188 A VIVIPAROUS AUSTRALIAN PERIPATUS, 



dinarily deferred expectation, viewed from the confident 

 standpoint of July 31st. 



The expected young may subsequently have hatched, or they 

 nirty not have hatched, or they may yet hatch, or they may never 

 hatch at all ; I cannot find any reference to the subject of later 

 date than Professor Spencer's Address, of which he has recently 

 very kindly sent me a copy. But whatever has happened or may 

 happen in this matter, is quite immaterial just now, for I am not 

 directly concerned with the mode of reproduction of the Victorian 

 Peripatus, nor is it a subject on which in the past I have ever 

 said a word. What we are directly concerned with at present is 

 that the beautiful myth that the young of P. leuckartii " are 

 hatched at the end of October" from eggs laid in July previous, 

 has now received a well-merited quietvis at Dr. Dendy's own 

 hands ; and with it also the altogether fabulous Australian 

 Peripatus — Avhich would have been such a treasure to Mr. Field 

 — whose young complete their development after deposition of the 

 eggs in which there is no sign of an embryo, in the astonishingly 

 short period of from three to four months — or, say, from July 1st 

 to October 31st. 



That on Mt. Kosciusko at such an elevation as 5700 feet, 

 at which Peripatus leuckartii was found by Mr. R. Helms, 

 Peripatus should lay its eggs in what we may call almost mid- 

 winter, and that the eggs should hatch at the end of October, 

 when some at least, if not the greater part, of this period would 

 certainly be included in the months to which Mr. Helms refers 

 when he says that " it must be remembered that this locality for 

 at least from four to five months [in the year] is frequently 

 covered with several feet of snow," and where even as early as 

 19th March Mr. Helms says he experienced frosty nights, would be 

 on the face of it so extravagantly improbable — unless the develop- 

 ment of the eggs of an oviparous Peripatus can steadily proceed at 

 a temperature of about freezing point or lower — as never to have 

 been worth serious consideration. And not less improbable, except 

 with the same limitation, would it be of P. leuckartii at an elevation 

 of over 3000 feet on the Blue Mountains, at which I myself have 

 found it. 



