320 Cc. O. WHITMAN. 
in such quantities that the people cannot pull them off so fast 
_ as they crawl on; the blood runs pouring down their legs all 
the way they go, and it is no little smart neither; so that they 
would willingly be without them if they could, especially those 
that have sores on their legs; for they all gather to the sore.” 
The tales of bloody encounters narrated by Hooker, Hoff- 
meister, Semper, and many others, have given the Land Leech an 
odious reputation ; and such accounts are responsible for the 
prevailing notion that the creature is repulsive in appearance 
as well as fierce in behaviour. The brief accounts that have 
appeared since the time of Knox, not including the more recent 
descriptions by Tennent, Schmarda, and Grube, have nearly all 
come from persons who knew the Land Leech only as a loathsome 
pest. From the popular standpoint, it must be admitted that 
the character of the Land Leech has little to recommend it and 
much that is calculated to inspire disgust. On the other hand, 
from the standpoint of the zoologist, it may be said that no 
other member of the whole class of Leeches can lay higher 
claims to our attention and interest. Myriads of these Leeches 
are certainly able to give the intruder into their haunts a 
reception that would leave a lasting, and very likely a painful, 
impression. But when we reflect that the very traits which 
render them so irresistible in attack and so offensive in cha- 
racter, furnish unmistakable evidence of the severity with 
which their energies have been taxed in the struggle for exist- 
ence ; and that by virtue of these traits they have been preserved 
and have far outstripped their nearest relative, the freshwater 
Hirudo, we are prepared to admit that their energy, voracity, 
pertinacity, dexterity, and swiftness in attack call for admira- 
tion rather than disgust, and that their peculiarities of struc- 
ture, mode of life, geographical distribution, and ztiology are 
subjects quite worthy of careful study. 
The geographical distribution of the Land Leeches, of which 
about a dozen species are known to me, is somewhat more 
limited than that of the Land Planarians. They are found in 
abundance in the lower ranges of the Himalayas, where the 
upper limit of their vertical distribution is said to be not less 
