1862.] sik J. E. TENNENT ON MEGASCOLEX CHRULEUS. 25 
coloured, and containing only a few blackened ova; the oviduct is 
spotted with dark patches, and considerably coutracted. 
And thirdly, in birds with the male plumage predominating over 
that of the female, the ovarium is reduced to a small dark amorphous 
mass, resembling coagulated blood, the presence of ova cannot be 
detected, and the oviduct is almost entirely obliterated at its junction 
with the ovarium. Thus it seems that there are three distinct phases 
in this peculiar abnormal state of the generative functions. 
I have also noticed that, in most cases where the male plumage is 
in excess of the female, the tail-feathers are particularly long, some 
being as much as 19 inches in length. 
Although Mr. Yarrell states that this condition of the female 
generative organs is not confined to the Phasianide, and that it has 
occurred in the gold and silver pheasants, partridges, pea-fowl, com- 
mon fowl, common pigeon, king-fisher, and common duck, and that 
other classes of animals are liable to an influence similar in kind, 
particularly among insects and Crustacea, yet this disorganization is 
rarely observed except among the Phasianide, and particularly when 
these birds are produced in a domestic state, 7. e. on the present 
system of breeding pheasants in preserves. Very few dattues take 
place in which some of these birds (generally designated mules) are 
not killed and mixed indiscriminately with the heaps of the slain. 
As to the cause of this disorganization, if it occurred only in the 
old female, or if it were a common occurrence among birds either of 
different genera or of the same genus, it could be easily accounted for ; 
but when it is generally found existing among a class of birds which 
are bred in vast numbers in a particularly artificial manner, it leads 
one to suppose that the cause must be connected with this condition. 
Whether the eggs laid by a number of females—to whom perhaps, 
from circumstances, too few males have been admitted—have been 
imperfectly fecundated, and therefore the chick improperly formed, 
remains a subject for future consideration. 
2. Nore on THE GIGANTIC EARTH-worM (MEGASCOLEX CERU- 
LEUS) FROM CeyLon. By Str James Emerson TENNENT, 
K.C.B., V.P.Z.8., ETC. 
{In 1853 the British Museum received, through Mr. Hugh Cuming, 
two specimens of a large Earth-worm from Ceylon, which is evi- 
dently the Megascolexr ceruleus described by Dr. Templeton in the 
‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society ’ for 1844, p. 89. 
A few days ago Sir James Emerson Tennent kindly procured from 
Ceylon, and sent to the British Museum, a specimen of the same 
worm, and, in reply to my inquiries respecting the habits and verna- 
cular name of the animal, sent to me the following letter, which, 
with his permission, I lay before the Society—Joun Epwarp 
Gray. British Museum, Feb. 11, 1862.] 
