252 CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 



for the yolk of the egg into the intestine of the young 

 viper ; just as I have seen in young Dog-fish \_Scyttium 

 canicula] , in the belly of the old one, half, or a good part 

 of the yolk hanging out of the body at the infundibulum. 

 It seem to me not at all likely that creatures of the same 

 genus should have a different manner of generation ; and 

 we see this hatching of eggs, properly so called, in the 

 belly, exemplified in cartilaginous fish. 



I have some reason to doubt of what you and Dr. 

 Tyson write concerning adders having no vesiculae semi- 

 nales. A male that I dissected had a long vesicula re- 

 plete with sperm (as I took it to be), like the milt of a 

 fish, extending the whole length of the belly ; but I did 

 not carefully examine it, and therefore might be mistaken, 

 and it might be nothing but fat. 

 B. N., June 1, 92. 



Mr. RAY to Dr. ROBINSON. 



SIR, Our principal physician at Braintree, Mr. Allen, 

 my acquaintance and friend, hath discovered hereabouts 

 flying glowworms ; and I doubt not but they are every- 

 where to be found, being nothing else but a kind of long- 

 bodied beetle, though they shine not in this country. 

 They answer exactly to Aldrovand's description of the 

 Cicindela volans of Italy. The reason why I mention 

 this is, because this gentleman meeting with this beetle, 

 and finding by strict observation that the body of it 

 answered exactly in figure to that of a creeping glow- 

 worm, suspected it to be the male glowworm; and 

 having some creeping glowworms by him, put this 

 animal into a box with one of them, which, after some 

 short time, coupled with it ; but because the box where- 

 in to they were put was small and shut, to confirm the 

 experiment, he put a creeping glowworm into an open 



