680 MURIEL ROBERTSON. 
under the water on its suckers in precisely the same way that 
the common land leech does on land. 
This leech broods its young, but it usually seems to carry 
about only very few with it. I have frequently got them 
with one or two quite good-sized young ones, and remember 
on one occasion taking three parents, each carrying one 
young one, from a tortoise, and putting them into a watch- 
glass. They had all got detached and mixed up in the pro- 
cess, a short time later they were once more arranged in pairs, 
but I had no means of discovering if each parent had selected 
out its own offspring or had just adopted the first one it met. 
The Glossiphonia is a very inconspicuous creature, is quite 
aquatic, and dies very soon if left out of water, which pro- 
bably accounts for it not having been found sooner. The 
tortoises were generally brought in by natives, and it was 
always some hours before they were examined, and I expect 
in many cases the leeches had died and dropped off before 
they reached the museum. 
From this time forward leeches of this species were got 
from time to time, but it was difficult owing to the relatively 
free habit of the beast and small size to get them in numbers. 
A good number were got for me by Dr. Willey from 
Hambentot in the south-eastern part of the Island. They 
came from milk tortoises (Hmyda vittata) living in a 
bathing place; alongside of them were lake tortoises 
(Nicoria trijuga) with Ozobranchus! upon them. 
The leeches seem to be specific to the two tortoises, only 
one Glossiphonia, an empty specimen, was found on the top 
of the carapace of a Nicoria; its presence was probably quite 
casual, just as I have occasionally found a stray Branchel- 
lion on a ‘Tropidonotus (water-snake) which was living in a 
tank with Nicoria—they never fed on the snake. 
‘The digestion in the Glossiphonia completes itself in about 
two to six days, according to the size of the leech, but I do 
not know exactly what period of time must elapse before the 
1 Ozobranchus, a species of this genus of leech is found in great 
numbers upon Nicoria trijuga. Mr. Harding states that this is a 
new species. 
