BY ARTHUR DENDY. 269 



two specimens at Warburton (only one specimen having been 

 previously recorded from this colony) I made the following 

 statement: "After carefully studying Professor Sedgwick's full 

 description of A leuckartii, I am fairly certain that they do not 

 belong to that species, but to a new one, which I for the present 

 refrain from naming " — basing my conclusion on the remarkable 

 pattern of the skin. Professor Sedgwick, however, in reply to my 

 observations, expressed the opinion* that the species probably 

 was subject to a considerable range of variation in colour. Having 

 studied more specimens, I myself came to the same conclusion,! 

 and have since then followed Mr. Fletcher in calling the larger 

 Victorian species P. leuckartii. This use of the name leiickartii 

 on my part seems to be Mr. Fletcher's chief grievance against me, 

 but I would ask him to remember that T have only followed his 

 own lead in this respect. 



(2) I am not aware that I have contradicted any statements, for 

 the simple reason that I cannot find that there were any definite 

 statements as to the mode of reproduction of the New South 

 Wales Peripatus for me to contradict. There was merely the 

 assumption by Mr. Fletcher (which I quoted and characterised as 

 very natural) that the young animals which he found in company 

 with the parent had been born alive. 



(3) I consider that I was fully justified in assuming that the 

 mode of reproduction of the N.S. W. Peripatus was the same as 

 that of the Victorian one, as at the time when I wrote there were 

 no definite observations published as to the mode of reproduction 

 of the former, and it was almost inconceivable that diflferent 

 individuals, which Mr. Fletcher himself, in common with all 

 other writers on the subject, regarded as belonging to one and 

 the same species, should be oviparous in the one colony and 

 viviparous in the other. I have no doubt now that the New 

 South Wales Peripatiis is viviparous, as maintained by Mr, 



* "Nature," February '2Sth, 1889. 

 + "Observations on the Australian Species of Peripatus." Proc. Roy. 

 Soc. Victoria, July Uth, 1889. 



