Sucklers. 9277 
the various intestinal worms are the most familiar examples,—I have never before 
heard of worms external to the cavities of the stomach and- bowel, or those special 
organs in the substance of which they find a suitable habitat. That the largest bag of 
serous membrane in the body should be the abode of parasites, so formidable in power 
and appearance, is very strange; and yet the bird in every respect, unless we except 
the dullness of plumage, appeared to have been in good health and condition. It 
therefore would seem that no organ or organized structure is exempted from the 
presence and attacks of the parasitic entozoon in one form or another. The liver, 
kidney, brain, and even the eye and heart, have been the selected abode and prey of 
parasitic life, and it would appear that the delicate and highly sensitive surface of the 
chief serous membrane of the body is equally liable to their predatory attacks, These 
worms were evidently of the genus Tania, and were more or less jointed. They 
appeared to be made up of a mouth or sucker, presenting a circular concave disk, with 
four or five holes or suckers arranged in a circle, just within an outer circular lip, and 
external to an inner circular concavity (possibly a provision for the production of a 
vacuum, by means of which the creature attaches itself to its living prey), a narrow 
neck (like that of a bottle), a vermiform-looking body, which is the thickest part of the 
parasite, and which, like the whole structure, is of a dusky white colour, and a tail, 
made up of several segments or joints varyiug in number from four to eight, according 
to the size of the worm. ‘The creature would seem to add to its length by the growth 
of additional segments rather than by an increase in the size of those it originally 
possessed. Indeed these segments would hardly appear to be essential to the existence 
of the worm; for in’some of the smaller specimens I examined there was no trace of 
any joint or segment whatever. These joints seem to fit into or overlap one another in 
the same way as the vertebre do in the spinal column of an animal W. W. Boulton ; 
Beverley, July 26, 1864. 
Period of Gestation in the Badger.—Since my quotations on this subject were made 
from the ‘ Field’ newspaper (Zovl. 9218), Mr. Freeland Young has published a well- 
authenticated instance of a female badger producing young after being fifteen months 
in solitary cunfinement.—-Ldward Newman. 
Seals of the Coast of Yarmouth.—About two montlis since two fine examples of the 
seal were captured off the coast of Yarmouth by some fishermen, by getting entangled 
in their nets; they were exhibited for several days in the streets of this city by their 
captors: a third specimen was taken on the 12th instant. ‘The last meutioned is now 
in the hands of a naturalist in this city for preservation —Z. BE. Gunn; Norwich, 
September 14, 1864. 
[Will my correspondent kindly complete this information by saying to what genus 
and species the seals belong; their being captured and exhibited must have affurded 
ample opportunity for deciding this interesting peint.— #. N.] r 
Commen See 
Arab Faleonry.—The Sheik Bou Disah, whose guest I was, has brought with him 
his falcons, and afforded me an opportunity of observing for the first time the Arab 
faleonry, a sport still pursued with all the zeal, skill and science displayed by our 
ancestors in the “ noble mysterie.” The villein who presumed to raise his hand against 
