1897.] Loology. 543 
with waving pseudopodia and within which one may recognize clear and 
dark colored vesicles in different stages of development that later funct- 
ion as reproductive elements. 
Sometimes the normal urnes may reproduce by the simple process of 
fission, the two halves drawing apart. At such times one may find 
buds developing upon the large clear vesicle that seem analogous to 
those just described. 
The authors promise a memoir accompanied with micro-photographic 
plates. 
Biological Observations on Peripatus.'—The observations 
which Mr. Steel makes upon a large number of specimens of Peripatus 
leuckarti var. orientalis Fletch. are of considerable biological interest. 
Some 579 specimens, 390 of which were females, were collected in New 
South Wales during the seasons 1894-5-6. He found that the color 
of individuals is quite variable, but that the variations are such that 
they may be arranged in four groups: first, those which are blue-black 
or black, of which the total number of specimens contained 77.5 per 
cent. ; second, black specimens, speckled with brown, which numbered 
6.5 per cent.; third, brown specimens with black antennæ, which 
amounted to 10 per cent.; fourth, specimens entirely brown, of which 
there were 6 per cent. These colors, he states, seem to be more or less 
fixed, for, as a rule, the larvze follow the color of the mother; for ex- 
ample, brown specimens with black antennz will produce young with 
the same color characteristics. 
Considerable difference was noted between the sizes of the specimens 
collected in the season of 1894-5 and of those collected in the season of 
1895-6. The latter were very small in comparison with the others. 
The specimens were also rarer during the latter season. The author en- 
deavors to account for these differences by citing the fact that the first 
season was moist and the second very dry. . But whether the large 
specimens of the first year had died off, or whether the unfavorableness 
of the second season had decreased their size, he is unable to say. 
The food of Peripatus consists entirely of insects such as those found 
on and beneath decayed logs, and of these the Termites seem to form 
the animal’s favorite food. The animals are sociable and gather in 
groups and give no.evidence whatever of being cannibalistic. The au- 
thor has fed the animals in vivaria upon dead insects, but has never 
been able to induce them to eat raw meat. 
When surprised by a quick exposure to light, they sometimes eject 
slime from their cephalic glands, and when seeking prey, if the latter 
3 Thos. Steel. Observations on Peripatus. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales., 
XXXI. 97-104. 
