69 1 2 Quadrupeds. 



March I was favoured with three specimens of this species. Tn August I was asto- 

 nished to find di fourth, in a closed condition, too large to have been produced from 

 ova or discharged as perfect young, or to have escaped my observation for any length 

 of time. A few days after this I discovered a second grown specimen, in the process 

 of division ; the skin of the lower portion of the column appeared ruptured, revealing 

 a bundle of white threads quite tense. For the moment I felt alarmed for the welfare 

 of my favourite; but the unaccounted-for presence of the fourth specimen led to the 

 conclusion that the process of division was going on. A few hours after, the upper 

 portion, with the disk, which during the whole process was expanded to the utmost, 

 moved off, leaving the old base, with a portion of the column, to form a new animal. 

 For some days the bottom of the column of the old specimen [the separated portion] 

 looked like the broken stem of a plant with numerous ragged ends of white fibres 

 hanging about ; it however healed in time, returning to its former state. Immediately 

 after the division the new animal, i.e. the [moiety which possessed the] old base, 

 closed over perfectly the ruptured integument, and showed little signs of life for ten 

 or twelve days ; gradually, however, it formed a new disk and minute tentacles. Three 

 weeks after, it had a well-formed disk and long tentacles. Within a few days of the 

 same period the third specimen also went through the same process, but the ruptured 

 integument of the old base [i. e. the new animal] never healed ; it lived many days in 

 a restless state, and then died. The three old specimens * recovered, and, together 

 with the two young, which have grown, and show all the characteristics of the old 

 ones, are in good condition at the present time. I was at the Zoological Society last 

 autumn, and was there shown two small Aiptasice which the keeper informed me had 

 been produced from ova. The transverse division of the whole column was so new a 

 fact to me that I intended putting you in possession of the facts long ago, in case you 

 might have thought them worthy of note in your valuable work now completed ; pro- 

 bably, however, ere this you have been made acquainted with similar facts, or 

 they may have occurred under your immediate notice. — F. N. Broderick ; Ri/de, Isle 

 of Wight, January 2, 1860. 



The Stoat (Mustela erminea) in its Winter Garb at Selbome. — A kind neighbour 

 of mine brought me, on the 27th of last month, a stoat which he had shot on Sel- 

 borne Common, which had assumed almost completely the northern winter garb of 

 the ermine, the only remains of the ordinary brown being partially on the head and on 

 some porlions^of the anterior part of the body ; the whole of the hinder part, including 

 the tail, being as perfect ermine as any lady could desire for her muff or a peer for his 

 Parliamentary robe. This is a rare, but not an unprecedented, occurrence in this 

 latitude, as I find in my notes the following passage: — " An intelligent labourer here 

 has assured me that he has repeatedly killed the stoat in its pure white winter dress 

 at Selbome. He has also found it in the pied transition state." — Thomas Bell ; 

 January 7, 1860. 



* Tt must be borne in mind that my correspondent applies the terra " old '' to 

 those animals which retain the original disk, and " young" to those which have formed 

 a new disk. — P. H. G. 



