BY J. J. FLETCHER. 191 



if necessary, furnished by Sclater, who after speaking of the 

 embryos contained in the uterus of the S. American species which 

 he proposed to call P. iinthurni, goes on to say of breeding 

 females : " I am unable to say whether they are pregnant all the 

 year round, but it seems probable that this is the case." * 



And as Moseley's knowledge of the viviparous nature of P. 

 capensis was thus entirely derived from the study of pregnant 

 specimens, as he himself terms them, and as his observations on 

 this point, the correctness of which has never been questioned, are 

 simply a record of pregnant specimens, it is quite clear that in 

 dealing with other species of Peripatus about whose mode of 

 reproduction nothing was previously known, any observer who 

 meets with a female containing embryos knows ipso facto that he 

 has to do with a viviparous species, he is entitled to speak of such 

 a specimen as pregnant and is correct in so doing, and a record of 

 a pregnant specimen is a record of a viviparous species. And if 

 instead of taking the embryos out of the uterus oneself, they 

 should be extruded during the process of drowning the mothers — 

 by which means, as Sedgwick has recommended, one can obtain 

 uncontracted specimens — owing, as I suppose to the continued 

 struggles, this obviously is only another phase of the same thing, 

 and is quite as satisfactory evidence of viviparity. 



I tirst met with living specimens of the N.S.W. Peripatus in 

 June, 1888, and on the 27th of that month I exhibited three of 

 them at a Meeting of this Society, a notice of the exhibit appearing 

 in due course in the Proceedings [Vol. iii. (2), Part ii, p. 892 — 

 published September 10th]. The subsequent history of two of 

 these specimens — the third made good her escape, and I lost all 

 trace of her — is soon told. Dr. Haswell was desirous of examining 

 the muscles of Peripatus in the fresh condition [vide his Note on 

 the subject in Report of Austral. Assoc. Adv. of Sc. Vol. ii. p. 

 487] and I promised him one of my specimens, and within a fort- 

 night after the meeting I sent it to him. A few days afterwards 

 when I next saw him, he told me that he had utilised the specimen, 

 and that she was pregnant, or contained embryos — I am not sure 

 now which of the expressions was used ; and he added farther 

 * Studies from the Morphol. Lab., Cambridge, Vol. iv. p. 215. 



