MEETINGS. 77 



Monthly Meeting held November 20th, 1896, Mr. A. Collenette, 

 President, in the chair. 



The minutes of the last meeting having been read and 

 approved, Mr. MacCallan, Colborne Road, was unanimously 

 elected a member. 



General Harvey read a note on the discovery of a 

 skeleton at Les Pulias, near Grande Rocque Barracks. 



Mr. Royle exhibited mounted specimens of some of the 

 most recent additions to the herbarium. 



Mr. Luff exhibited a specimen of a curious Myriapod, 

 a species of Scutigera, captured in Pollet Street, on Oct. 29th, 

 and read the following note on the subject : — 



" I have pleasure in exhibiting a curious Myriapod, a 

 species of Scutigera, captured in Pollet Street on Oct. 29th. 

 The genus Scutigera is unrepresented in the British Islands. 

 One specimen was captured in Scotland some years ago by 

 Mr. Gibson Carmichsel, but was shown- to have been imported, 

 and not bred in the place. 



" Mr. J. Sinel, in the recent edition of " Ansted's Channel 

 Islands," says that specimens of Scutigera coleoptrata have 

 been taken in Jersey, but seem confined to the vicinity of the 

 harbours, and is not common. Several species are common 

 on the shores of the Mediterranean and in parts of Africa, 

 and this one has probably been introduced. 



" The genus Scutigera is distinguished from all the rest of 

 the Myriapods by its long legs, bringing it in this respect 

 near to the spiders, which it resembles in its very rapacious 

 and carnivorous nature. The ScutigeridcE are the swiftest 

 runners amongst the Myriapods, and are able to move tail 

 forward almost as well as in the ordinary manner. Where 

 there are such a number of legs it becomes a curious question 

 as to the order in which the animal moves them, and though 

 several people have tried to find this out, the number of legs 

 to be moved and their rapid movements have rendered accu- 

 rate observation impossible. Some years ago Professor E. 

 Ray Lankester tried to study the order in which the legs of 

 Centipedes moved, and came to the conclusion (recorded in an 

 amusing letter in Nature, 23rd of May, 1889), that if the 

 animal had to study the question itself it would not get on at 

 all. He finishes his letter with the following verses : — 



A centipede was happy quite 



Until a toad in fun 

 Said ' ' Pray which leg nioves after which ?' ' 

 Tins raised her doubts to such a pitch 

 She fell exhausted in a ditch, 



Kot knowing how to run. 



