148 RICHARD EVANS. 



their being short and stumpy, and placed close to one another. 

 Hence the facts recorded as to the shape and relative position 

 of the legs in a dead Pe rip at us have no practical value. 

 Because the usually recorded facts as to the coloration and the 

 dimensions of preserved specimens have no value, in the 

 present paper the reader will look in vain for the facts in 

 question. 



The material to be described in the coming pages was 

 collected for me by a black man aback of a plantation situated 

 on the east bank of the river Demerara. The specimens 

 were collected during the first half of August, 1902, and con- 

 sisted in all of nine individuals, Avhich were distributed 

 between the sexes in the ratio of eight females to one male. 

 This fact is in accordance with the almost invariable rule that 

 in any collection of Peripatus the females are more numer- 

 ous than the males. 



In looking at this small collection of nine animals the idea 

 that occurred to me at first was that I had been so fortunate 

 as to come across the male of Peripatus im-Tliurmi, 

 which has, up to the present, remained undiscovered ; but on 

 dissecting one of the specimens I found that the animal being 

 examined was a female, and I was forced to the conclusion 

 that I must have discovered a new species. The specimens 

 were found on more or less swampy ground, under the remains 

 of rotten leaves and dead tree trunks. Some of them were 

 kept alive at the museum in a glass-covered box, in which 

 was placed a quantity of the soil, leaves, and rotten wood 

 which they usually inhabit. To all this was added enough 

 water to make the contents of the box as damp as the man 

 who collected the specimens thought their customary habitat 

 was, and the result seemed to be a veritable swamp. Speci- 

 mens belonging to another species collected in the same 

 locality and under similar circumstances still thrive well in 

 the artificia swamp described above. 



