HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



61 



The trunk and basal neck-joint have a brownish 

 hue, while the retractile foot and fore-parts are quite 

 colourless. 



Several individuals were noticed surrounded by, 

 and dragging about, small masses of adherent 

 floccose, but the majority are quite clean. One 

 specimen remained healthy and active for days, 

 while infested with some schizomycetous fungus 

 growing from its integument. Length, when re- 

 tracted, S55 inch to t^ inch. 



Sp. Chars. Body broad and flattened, brownish, 

 with prominent tubercles upon the trunk and foot. 

 Xeck with angular lateral projections. Integument 

 shagreened. Corona moderately wide, a little wider 

 than neck, of two well-separated lobes. Dorsal 

 antenna equal to neck-width. Rami with 3 promi- 

 nent teeth, and a fainter fourth. Food not in pellets. 

 Foot-spurs small, apiculate, without interspace, 

 resembling those of quadrkomifera. 



MOXSTERS. 

 By F. Edward Hulme, F.L.S., F.S.A. 



THE love of the marvellous is deeply engrained in 

 human nature. We may see abundant proof 

 of this in such classic myths as the Sirens, in the 

 monstrous forms carved or depicted in the temp'es 

 of Egypt or Mexico, in the popularity of such books 



as the Arabian Nights' Tales, or the adventures of 

 Gulliver, down to the fearful joy of the youngsters in 

 the nursery in the sanguinary giant whose food was 

 the blood of Englishmen. 



" Far away in the twilight time 

 Of every people, in every clime, 

 Dragons and griffins and monsters dire, 

 Bom of' water or air or fire, 

 Crawl and wriggle and foam wilh rage 

 Through dark tradition and ballad age.'* 



The fell harpies, the monstrous roc, the- death- 

 dealing basilisk, the phcenix, the chimaara, the mon- 

 strous kraken, the deadly cockatrice, the fire-drake, 

 Dagon (half-man, half-fish), the vulture-headed Nis- 

 roch, the treacherous Lorelei, sweet Queen Mab of 

 .fairyland, fiery dragons, ghastly wehr-wolves, mer- 



Fig. 36. 



maids, centaurs, together with the great sea-serpent,, 

 the toad embedded for countless centuries in the rock, 

 and other wonders that still turn up from time to 

 time during the dull season in the newspapers, are 

 but a few examples that at once occur to one's, 

 thoughts. Ovid and Pliny in their day went to very 



