May 2 3, 1872] 



NATURE 



65 



as to my experiences with icgar 1 to them may be of 

 interest to the readers of Nature. 



PasscTtta myc/crhaus. — A brilliant emerald green tree 

 snalce, with horizontal pupil. I obtained a fine specimen 

 about 4.; ft. long. I put him in a small wooden box with 

 w ire-gauze cover. As usual with this species, he would not 

 feed, but drank frequently with great eagerness. Snakes 

 •often die in confinement for want of water. In the case 

 ■of tropical snakes, it should not be forgotten that the 

 water must be warmed as soon as colder latitudes are 

 Tcached. This snake is now in the Regent's Park Zoo- 

 logical Gardens, and has now been two months without 

 food. The keeper tells me that a specimen formerly in 

 the Gardens lived si.\ months without eating.* 



Lyrioccplialus scutatus. — These lizards live in large 

 numbers m the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, fre- 

 quenting the moist shady banks of the Mahawillaganga, 

 which bounds the Gardens in one direction. The animals 

 sit all day on tree trunks, with their head uppermost. 

 They can run very fast, but are easily caught, as is the 

 case with most lizards, with a slip noose of palm fibre. 

 They allow the noose to be put over their heads with the 

 greatest ease. When first caught they are very fierce, and 

 display their array of sharp teeth and bright scarlet 

 mouths whenever a finger is moved near them, and they 

 bite hard whenever they get a chance, holding like bull- 

 dogs, as I often experienced to my cost when feeding 

 them. I could not get them to feed themselves either 

 whilst in Ceylon or on the voyage home. I therefore fed 

 them by hand, opening their mouths forcibly by pulling 

 on the pouch-skin and pushing worms down their throats. 

 After a time they chewed and swallowed the worms readily 

 on theirbeing put in their mouths. I also poured water down 

 their tliroats. I kept a stock of worms alive at the bottom 

 of the cage in moist earth. Kelaart, in his Nat. Hist, 

 of Ceylon, says that Lyrioccphalus takes boiled rice freely 

 in confinement ; and Dr. Giinther, " Indian Reports," p. 

 129, quotes him to that effect. 1 think this must be an 

 entirely erroneous statement. I forced rice down the 

 animals' throats, but they never seemed to relish it, and 

 they never touched it of themselves whilst under my care, 

 nor have they done so since they have been in the Re- 

 gent's Park Gardens. The lizards are remarkable for 

 their curious lyre-shaped heads, and the large knobs on 

 the ends of the snouts of the adults. In young specimens 

 the knob is very little developed. It is present in both 

 se.xes. The lizards change colour with great rapidity 

 when excited, even whilst held in the hand. They were 

 brought home in a tall wooden cage, by the advice of Mr. 

 Thvvaites so arranged that they could rest in their usual 

 vertical position on some rough bark nailed on to the 

 sides of the cage for the purpose. They clung on to these 

 supports and the perforated zinc front during all the 

 voyage home, and in their den in the reptile house in the 

 Gardens they are always to be seen clinging to the 

 branches head uppermost. The cage was kept on the 

 voyage from Alexandria to Southampton in the engine- 

 room of the P. and O. steamship Mooltan, as was also 

 the box with the tree snake, and both were taken up to town 

 from thence wrapped in a double blanket. Four of the 

 lizards are now alive in the Regent's Park Gardens. They 

 are still fed by hand, but one has been seen by the keeper 

 to help himself to worms. Some time ago an attempt was 

 made by Mr. Houldsworth to bring Lyriocephali home 

 alive, but his specimens unluckily died in the Channel. 

 Perhaps they were not hand-fed. 



The ground in Ceylon swarms with burrowing reptiles 

 of various kinds, and Mr. Thwaites's coolies used to dig 

 me up as many as twenty in an afternoon. They all came 

 from the moist river bank. Most abundant in the various 

 lots I received was always Aessia 7iw)wifac/yla, a lizard 

 which, having taken to underground habits, has become 



* Since the above was written this snake has not only swallowed a young 

 bird, but has also attempted to swallow another snake of a different species 

 confined in th« same cage. 



snake-like, and retains the merest rudiments of both its 

 limbs. I kept all my underground reptiles in damp moss 

 in joints of the gigantic bamboo. The iW-ssias move with 

 great agility through the moss, and lived well in confine, 

 ment. I hardly ever saw one in which the tail was not 

 a reproduction. 



Rliinophis Bythii. — These were not half so nimble as 

 the Nessias, and seemed rather more delicate. 



Typhlops bramiiiHs. ■ — These small blind-worm-like 

 snakes were not so abundant as the Rluiiopliida or Nessias, 

 but there were generally one or two in each batch. They 

 are very active, escape through the smallest crack, and 

 are with difficulty retained in the hand. I kept the M-.tj'/^j, 

 Rkiitop/iii/<i', and Typhlopidic together in a bamboo. I gave 

 them earth-worms. The worms disappeared, but also did 

 the Typlilopidic. These could not have escaped ; but were 

 probably eaten by the RhinopltidiT. 



CtLtihans. — Epicriiim glutinosiim. — I had only four 

 specimens brought me of Ccrcilia. They came from the 

 same bank as the Nessias, &c. They mo\-e along the 

 ground with a slow helpless wriggling motion, feeling their 

 way with their remarkable exsertile labial tentacles. These 

 tentacles are in constant motion, being alternately pro- 

 truded and retracted. They are evidently the animals 

 great stand-by in the special-sense way, and probably 

 contain interesting terminal nervous organs. The Ca:ci- 

 lians have a certain amount of prehensile power in their 

 tails. When placed in water they are very active, moving 

 hke eels, and seeming to enjoy themselves thoroughly. 1 

 kept them in moss in a bamboo, and put worms with them, 

 which disappeared in no small quantities. 



Mygale iiianiiorata. — This spider, a full-sized one, ate 

 cleari up five large cockroaches in the first two nights I 

 had it. A day later it cast up a large pellet, composed 

 of the chitinous skins of its victims, just as a rapacious 

 bird casts up feather pellets. It spun a small quantity of 

 irregular web against the side of its cage. As far as I 

 could observe, the spider did not feed again in the three 

 weeks during which I kept it alive. 



Scorpion liiibrostonos. — These large black scorpions I 

 could not get to feed at all, though I tried them with in- 

 sects and raw meat. 



Land Planarians. — Bipalium Diana, B. Proserpina, 

 B. Plixbc, and Rhynchodcmus Niclneri. — I obtained num- 

 bers of specimens of these huge Planarians, some as much 

 as eight inches long. I tried several times to keep them 

 alive amongst moist leaves, but unfortunately failed. They 

 never lived longer than four or five days, then appeared 

 to deliquesce into a slimy mass of corruption.* The slime 

 of these Planarians is so tough that they can suspend 

 themselves by a thread formed of it, and I have several 

 times had them lower themselves thus from my hand to a 

 table by means of a thread six or seven inches long. I 

 have only seen Bipalinm Diana and Proserpina do this, 

 not Rlivnchodcnins. The cellar slug, Liniax agrestis, uses 

 a mucous thread for suspension in a similar manner 

 (Binney's "Terrestrial and Air-breathing Molluscs of the 

 United States," vol. ii. p. 39). When in motion, the 

 Bipaliums throw out a series of short tentacular-like 

 papilla? from the front edge of their semicircular anterior 

 extremity. 1 had all the animals 1 have mentioned, ex- 

 cept the Planarians, alive as far as Suez, but unfortunately 

 they were all killed by the intense cold of the night journey 

 across the desert to Alexandria, except the Lyriocephali 

 and Passeritia, which I took in the carriage with me and 

 kept warm. The train was so crowded that I was obliged 

 to put the rest in the van. I especially grieved over the 

 loss of the Cfficilians ; they were especially well and 

 healthy, and I feel certain I should have got them home 

 alive had it not been for this mishap. I had hoped to be 

 able to get them to breed, and to watch their development. 



H. N. MOSELEY 



♦ Mr. Darwin had much better success with the South American Lancl 

 Planarians.—' ' Parwin's Journal ot Researches," i860 Edition, p. 27, 



