Qn 
ZOOLOGICAL NOTHS. 137 
to stop and look round, and saw a yellow animal bounding away through some very 
thin jungle about 400 yards away. I at first thought it was a deer; and I 
even put my rifle up in a careless sort of way, then I saw a long tail, and my 
thoughts ran to a neelghai ; the two natives also saw it. We went on, I being 
rather puzzled at the action and the tail of the beast. Presently, my chokra 
came up (who had been following me at about 200 yards) in an excited state, and 
said that as he was following me through this bit of grass, about twenty yards from 
the track, he saw a tiger crouching facing the path. He, naturally, being a 
servant and not a shikar, shouted out‘’ Bagh,” and the tiger went off into the 
jungle, and this was the beast we saw, and the others, who were behind, saw 
it as well. The inexplicable part of the business was that neither I, nor the two 
natives, who were both shikaris, and had seen lots of tigers, identified it as a 
tiger when we saw it. The only explanation I can offer is that a tiger was the last 
thing we expected to see, and we had been seeing on the way lots of deer of sorts. 
SIMULTANEOUS TWIN PARTURITION OF BUTHUS AFER, THE 
BLACK ROCK SCORPION. 
An illustration will be found facing page 69 of this number of the Journal, which 
has been reproduced from a photograph taken by Mr. F. J. Kingsley. It consists 
of a common Black Rock Scorpion (Buthus afer) preserved by the Rev. Fr. Dreck- 
mann, S. J., in the act of giving birth to two young ones simultaneously. 
The Rev. Fr. Dreckmann writes as follows regarding this unique specimen :— 
“Tt was caught with many others in Kbandalla, during May, 1886, and was after- 
wards brought down to Bombay. They did not, however, survive their capture 
very long, but in a few months all succumbed to voluntary starvation. They were 
tempted with different kinds of food, but all to no avail, only now and then they 
would feast upon one of their number, and when the young ones appeared they 
were most greedily devoured by their elders. About the middle of June the young 
ones began to make their appearance. As soon as they were born they climbed 
upon the backs of their mothers, probably to -be out of reach of her jaws, and it 
was noticed that the increase of the family was always by pairs. A closer examina- 
tion settled beyond doubt two points : Ist, that at least this kind of scorpion is 
strictly viviparous, not ovo-viviparous, as stated by Duncan (“Transformation of 
Insects”) and others ; and, 2nd, that the birth of the pair takes place simultaneously, 
though very often one of the twins would be somewhat in advance of the other. 
The specimen presented to the Society was placed in alcohol and killed during the 
process of parturition, so as to be in evidence about the two points in question. 
“ Last May we were unfortunate, as all our scorpions died befure any young ones 
were born; this year, however, Rev. Father Meyer, whose special pets they are, 
intends to take great care of them, and hopes to rear a sufficient number to be able 
to study their life-history, about which very little appears to be known. : 
“T have seen it stated that scorpions are such savage creatures that they are 
bound to lead a strictly solitary life, as the stronger one of two scorpions would 
invariably killand eat the weaker one. This is a calumny, I think, as we have 
often found as many as 16 (two old ones and fourteen half-grown) under one stone, 
and as 14 was also the greatest number of young ones born by any one female in 
_captivity, the presumption is that those 16 represented an undivided family.” 
