Zoology.'] 



NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. 



[Annelida. 



in size. These capsules are greenish and translucent when fresh, 

 but soon become dark -brown and hard in spirit. 

 A specimen of the 



thickness of that in the 

 plate will stretch itself 

 along the ground to a 



I. 



a 



fMnnunni ninMiuiniinzjj 



-€> ^> 



,i"fi. .n Atltnn, 



TlaTZUlL 





length of 6 feet in its 

 exertions to escape, 

 and one of that thick- 

 ness held up measured 

 5 feet 10 inches. As 

 has been observed of 

 the Perichceta, the two 

 ends remain alive and 

 vigorous in movement 

 long after some inches 

 or feet of the middle 

 may be dead and de- 

 composed, differing in 

 this respect from Lum- 

 bricus. The settlers 

 remark that fowls will 

 not eat these worms, even when chopped up. When cut they 

 bleed freely an abundance of the bright red blood which dis- 

 tinguishes the Annelida so curiously from the lower and higher 

 classes of the invertebrate animals. 



a Two rings of dried specimen magnified, showing the irregular conical 

 spinose appearance of the muscular longitudinal bands on ventral and 

 side portions. 



b One of the spinules or setee highly magnified. 



d Three rings of body, magnified, showing the eight spinules on the middle 

 ridge of each, the longitudinal muscular plication on the margins, and 

 the disposition of the sete to form on the successive rings, the four pairs 

 of longitudinal rows. 



c Capsule containing the young worm, natural size. 



Explanation or Figures. 



Plate 7. — Fig. 1, average specimen, natural size, the anterior rings extended, the line of 

 pores heing the breathing spiracles (these should not appear on the anterior dark-colored rings 

 in front of the clitellge). Fig. la, head of same specimen, contracted ; close to the number and 

 letter the three clitellar thickenings may be seen ; natural size. Fig. lb, anterior end view, 

 showing the mouth, magnified to twice the natural size Fig. lc, anal termination, magnified 

 twice the natural size. Fig. Id, the three clitellar swellings when extended, natural size (the 

 three slight depressions often seen in each are too strongly marked. Fig. le- same when con- 

 tracted (the pit-like marks too distinct). Fig. \f, dorsal view of smooth space along the back, 

 with the median rows of transversely oval breathing pores on the anterior edge of the rings. 



Frederick McCoy. 



Dec. i. 



[25] 



