1146 JObRNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



rounding human habitations. He regards 31 of the species found in India 

 and Ceylon as peregrine and a considerable number as of doubtful origin, 

 but the great majority he asserts to be endemic in the strict sense of the 

 word. It may be noted, however, that while the earthworms of Bengal, 

 certain parts of the Himalayas and Madras, the plains of Travancore and 

 of the United Provinces are now pretty well known, those of the Bombay 

 Presidency have still been very imperfectly collected and studied. 



In the first of his two papers Dr. Michaelsen states that the Indian 

 Empire and Ceylon may be divided, so far as the earthworms are concern- 

 ed, into three geographical regions, a North Indian Region, a South Indian- 

 Ceylon Region, and an Indo-Malayan Region. The last is of course not 

 confined by the political boundaries of the Indian Empire but extends 

 eastwards and southwards into Malaysia. So far as our fauna is concerned 

 it includes only Burma and the Andaman Islands. The North Indian 

 Region includes all India north of a line drawn from west to east " some- 

 what north of the latitude of Madras." The South Indian-Ceylon Region 

 is divided into two sub-regions, the South Indian and the Ceylon Sub- 

 region. With a few exceptions the earthworms of the Western Himalayas, 

 as well as all those known from the Punjab, are Paleearctic species, but 

 Dr. Michaelsen considers them to be peregrine, and is apparently prepared 

 to deny that there are any indigenous earthworms in North- Western 

 India. As some of the specimens he has examined come from localities in 

 the Western Himalayas far from any human dwelling, and as the many 

 other elements {e.g., the Diptera) in the fauna of the same localities are 

 Palsearctic, it is difficult to accept this verdict as final. A different view 

 is taken by Beddard as regards the earthworms of Gilgit.* 



Dr. Michaelsen is an enthusiast on behalf of the earthworms. "The 

 endemic terrestrial Oligocheetes," he writes, " give us one of the best 

 documents for the geological history of a country." He evokes a chain of 

 islands between New Zealand and the Eastern Himalayas to afford a 

 passage for the westward march of the Octochsetinee, and when it is no 

 longer needed for the use of these favoured creatures, dismisses it beneath 

 the sea. We may not be able to follow him in such flights, but it is 

 impossible to avoid recognition of the laborious and accurate work that 

 forms their starting point. All Indian naturalists must be grateful to him 

 for his researches on a group that has hitherto been much neglected in 

 this country but possesses a real geographical importance. — N. A. 



* " They are entirely European, %•&., Palasarctic species : they belong, in fact, to 

 the usual British forms. This is of interest, as being an approximation to 

 discovering - the limits of the Oriental region for worms "' : Beddard in Alcock's 

 Report on the Natural History Results of the Pamir Boundary Commission, p. 45 

 (Calcutta. 1 898) 



