291 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII. 
the minute mouth by the sucking action of the stomach. It would seem, 
however, that some hard chitinous pieces are also introduced into the alimen- 
tary canal, for the entire exoskeleton of a cockroach is rarely, if ever, left 
after the meal is finished. 
Feeding is a slow process ; a good-sized cockroach will last a Parabuthus for 
upwards of two hours or more. But although voracious eaters when the 
chance presents itself, they are able to endure with impunity starvation of 
several weeks’ duration. Unlike spiders, which are notoriously thirsty crea- 
tures, scorpions never seem to need anything to drink. Atleast none of mine 
were ever seen to touch water, although a supply of it was at first always kept 
in their box. 
With regard to the higher senses, the only one that seems to be highly deve- 
loped is that of touch. Mons. lL. Becker declares that sight and hearing are 
excessively developed ; but I cannot substantiate this statement in either 
particular. With regard to hearing, my observations agree entirely with those 
of Prof. Lankester, who could not detect the existence of any sense of this 
nature. None of my scorpions ever gave the slightest response to any kind of 
sound, although they were tried with tuning forks of varying tone and with 
shouts of both high and low pitch. These animals, in fact, resemble the 
hunting spiders in being apparently devoid of auditory organs. They further. 
resemble them in the development of their visual powers, being able to see 
a moving body, like a living cockroach, at a distance of only about three or 
four inches, Even at a distance less than this they do not seem able to 
distinguish form. Thus a specimen of Parabuthus, excited by the presence 
of cockroaches in the box, was seen to rush at one of its fellows that crossed 
its line of vision about two inches off, evidently not recognising by sight a 
member of its own species, for directly the pincers came in contact with the 
latter the mistake was discovered, the pugnacious attitude dropped, and no 
further notice was taken. This last observation shows that more is learnt 
from the sense of touch than from that of sight—an inference which is further 
supported by the habit, above referred to, of carrying the pincers well in 
front of the head as if to feel the way. There isno doubt that the external 
organs of touch in scorpions are the hairs which thickly or sparingly cover 
various parts of the body. The tail is often very thickly studded with sete, 
and the poison vesicle always hassome uponit. Their use upon this latter 
organ is very plainly seen during the act of stinging. For this act is not by 
any means a random thrust delivered indiscriminately at any part of a cap- 
tured insect, On the contrary, a scorpion generally feels carefully for a 
soft spot, and then with an air of great deliberation delicately inserts its sting 
into it. There can be little doubt that this care is taken that there may be 
no risk of damaging the point of the sting against a substance too hard for it, 
A reckless stab against the resisting chitinous exoskeleton of a beetle, for 
instance, might easily chip this point, and thus deprive the scorpion of its 
