EGGS OF PERIPATU8. 377 



fully confirmin^j;- Mr. Fletcher's observationsoii the viviparous 

 habit of the New Soutii Wales Peripatus. I think, there- 

 fore, that we nuiy consider it as safely established that the 

 New South Wales Peripatus knckartii is viviparous. I still 

 think, however, tliat the conimon Victorian species is not 

 viviparous. Unfortunately 1 liave not been able to obtain 

 any Victorian specimens of Peripatus since I first observed 

 the laying of eggs, although I have searched diligently for 

 them. I have therefore been obliged to content myself with 

 observing the behaviour of- the Perijjatus which remained 

 alive in my vivarium and of the eggs Mdiicli they had laid. 

 I will take up the history where 1 left it in my communication 

 to the Royal Society of Victoi-ia. We will consider the fate 

 of the adult animals hrst. 



On September 16th there were still two females alive in 

 the vivarium. I dissected one and found the organs 

 apparently healthy and Avell developed. There was one large 

 egg in the lower ])art of each oviduct, of the usual appearance, 

 with a very thick envelope and full of yolk. No embryo 

 was recognisable in either egg ; both were cut open and 

 examined microscopically. The shell was not sculptured. 

 On October 1st the last surviving Peripatus, a female, was 

 found dead in the vivarium. I found neither embryos nor 

 eggs in the oviducts, but the internal organs were in a bad state 

 of preservation ; still the large eggs would have been recogni- 

 sable. The ducts of the sUme glands were very much 

 enlarged and swollen out, and tlie branching parts very feebly 

 developed, — in fact not distinctly recognisable. The alimen- 

 tary canal was almost empty, and the animal seemed to have 

 died of starvation. 



It seems proliable from these observations that these 

 specimens, which 1 did not kill myself, died from starvation ; 

 there were a good many very minute insects jiresent in the 

 rotten wood, but these could hardly have been a sufficient 

 Ibod supply. This circumstance certainly favours the view 

 that the eggs wei'e abnormally deposited, but this piece of 

 adverse evidence is, to my mind, completely outweighed by 

 the fact that developing embryos are never found in the 

 uterus of freshly captured females, and by the presence of the 

 sculptured shell in the laid eggs. Moreover, if these eggs 

 had been abnormally extruded, as in P. novce-zealandia, 

 it is very improbable that they would undergo development 

 for any length of time outside the body of the parent ; they 

 would probably, as in the case of P. novce-zealandicB, perish. 



