BY ARTHUR DENDV. 271 



justifiable, though, as it turns out, incorrect, deduction from the 

 only published facts. It is perhaps unfortunate that both the 

 New South Wales and Victorian forms should have been included 

 under the name leuckartii ; but for this Mr. Fletcher himself is 

 at least as much responsible as any one. 



(5) Mr. Fletcher states that the question at issue is not whether 

 or no the Victorian species is oviparous. Herein 1 must beg to 

 differ from him, as this is the real question which I have been all 

 along trying to solve, and compared with which the mere question 

 of nomenclature is, in my opinion, insignificant. In concluding 

 his observations he also indulges in certain offensive and unjustifi- 

 able personalities, which I need not quote. It is greatly to be 

 regretted that he should have considered such a proceeding 

 advisable, and, for my own part, I entirely fail to see the advan- 

 tage to be derived therefrom and must refuse to follow his 

 example in this respect. 



Probably the solution of the whole difficulty will be found to 

 lie in the fact that my original opinion was correct after all, and 

 that our larger Victorian Peripatus is specifically distinct from 

 P. leuckartii. For the present, however, I still refi-ain from 

 giving it a distinctive name, as I have had very few specimens 

 from other localities to compare it with, and do not wish, if it 

 can be helped, to create a new species merely on account of the 

 oviparous habit. This question, however, is discussed in my 

 communication to the Australasian Association already referred 

 to. 



As to the oviparous habit of our larger Victorian species (so 

 called to distinguish it from the smaller P. insignis) I have some 

 additional evidence to offer, and I would like at the same time to 

 recapitulate the main arguments in favour of my view. My 

 critics have entirely ignored all that is new in my observations, 

 such as the remarkable sculptured egg-shell, and have suggested 

 that what I have observed is simply a case of abnormal extrusion 

 of eggs such as takes place sometimes in P. novce-zealandice. 

 Professor Hutton, however, who made the observation on the 

 New Zealand species, merely states that the eggs are often 

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