34 ON THE VORACITY OF A SPECIES OF HETEROSTOMA, 



The centipede had secure hold by numbers of its hinder legs to 

 a firm twig ; some of the middle ones held the tail of the Diplo- 

 dactylus, which was severed from the body, leaving but a short 

 stump, and the remainder held its victim securely by the right 

 hind leg and stump of the tail. I next got on all-fours to watch 

 the centipede feeding ; at first I thought it was but sucking the 

 blood, but saw shortly that it was eating the flesh also, and by 

 squeezing the wound with its mandibles, causing a copious flow of 

 blood at moderate intervals ; always eating the flesh between 

 these intervals. After watching them for about a quarter of an 

 hour, I killed the centipede and examined the Diplodactylus ; 

 I found, just immediately before and slightly beneath the right 

 hind leg, a shallow circular space a little more than the eighth of 

 an inch in diameter, and about one-sixteenth of an inch in depth, 

 eaten clean away. 



The Diplodactyhis when in the grasp of the centipede seemed 

 stupified, but soon recovered itself after I had liberated it. It 

 was fully four inches in length, and about half an inch in breadth 

 across the body. The Heterostoma was about three and a half 

 inches in length, and in breadth of a proportion common to its 

 family. 



I may state that I made notes of all my observations at the 

 times they were made, and it is from these notes that my remarks 

 this evening are compiled. 



The locality where this observation was made is the same as 

 that given in my preceding paper. 



Notes and Exhibits. 



Mr. Macleay exhibited a curious horny growth taken from the 

 ear of a sheep at Natal Downs, Queensland. The growth, which 

 seems to have arisen from ear-marking five months previously, 

 was of a long conical shape, resembling horn both in form and 

 texture. 



