BY J. J. FLETCHER, M.A., B.SC. 529 



kinds in different stages of growth. The largest of these ( Notoscolex 

 grandis) though not so gigantic as certain worms found in Brazil 

 in Ceylon, or at the Cape, nor as the Gippsland worm of which 

 Professor McCoy measured an example 70 inches long when held 

 up, is still a lai'ge worm, one example among my spirit specimens 

 measuring 42 inches, and being of proportionate thickness. The 

 other three, one of which is a perichsete worm — that it has a 

 more or less complete circle of bristles round each segment — are 

 smaller, but still fair-sized worms ; their dimensions and characters 

 will be given in the systematic part of this paper. 



At Mt. Wilson as I shall mention presently, the abundance of 

 worm castings on the surface is very striking, but at Burrawang, 

 strange to say, the worms do not, as far I can discover, cast on the 

 surface. This statement may be qualified to the extent, that 

 on a part of the farm, where the soil is so poor that 

 b> brickyard was opened for a time, after heavy rain small 

 worms may be seen under stones and logs, beside which one 

 may occasionally find a small quantity of their castings, But in 

 the best paddocks such as J have seen ploughed, I have never been 

 able to find the castings on the surface, nor under any circum- 

 stances have I ever found the castings of the big worms above 

 ground, though I have searched carefully over a piece of land 

 before ploughing, and yet in the course of an hour have seen the 

 same ground teeming with worms only a few inches below the 

 surface. I have been to Burrawang twice in midsummer, twice in 

 midwinter, and once in early spring, yet my experiences have always 

 been the same as regards the general absence of surface castings. 

 On the occasion of my first visit not knowing where to look for 

 them, and seeing no indications on the surface, I did not get to know 

 that worms were found there, until I questioned the men about the 

 place. But though the worms do not cast above ground 

 their castings are abundant enough in their burrows, and very 

 often the clods turned over by the plough are simply riddled 

 with castings up to within a few inches of the surface. The best 

 opportunity of examining these, however, is furnished by the earth 

 round the roots of fallen trees. Many of the large Eucalypts on 



