836 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [VoL. XXXV. 
tongue it has little difficulty in feeding upon animals which are 
enclosed in a stout leathery skin. Reference has already been 
made to the spasmodic movement of the siphonal flaps and 
of the ventral rim of the mantle; under normal conditions the 
movement of exhalation is practically confined to the siphonal 
flaps, the ventral rim of the mantle being closely apposed to 
the aperture of the shell, just as the portion of the mantle 
behind the hood is apposed to the black region of the coil. 
It is not difficult to convince one's self that under natural 
conditions Nautilus is well able to 
protrude its * head ” quite widely 
from the aperture of the shell in 
a way suggested by the position 
of Fig. 14. 
Breeding Season, and the Ques- 
tion whether Eggs and Young have 
been collected by Fishermen.— From 
the condition of the reproductive 
organs in five specimens examined 
I am led to infer that the breeding 
T de of Nautilus in the region of south- 
Fic. 15. — Individual of preceding figure Ern Negros extends over a con: 
Hn M eet one eee siderable season ; this evidence, 
however, is too meager to be of particular value.! There is 
certainly, it seems to me, a fair chance of securing the embryos 
of Nautilus in this region if what I learned from the fishermen is 
to be relied upon. One of these men in particular gave such a 
satisfactory account that I cannot very well doubt that he had 
at some time seen deposited eggs. And it may be well to state 
parenthetically that no data were given to the fishermen which 
they could make use of in their reminiscences. The fisherman 
in question assured me that on one occasion, as nearly as he 
could remember it was during the early part of the summer of 
! I find that Willey at first believed that in the case of Nautilus in New Guinea 
“reproduction takes place all the year round” (Q. J. M. S., 1896, p- 176). aan 
his observations in Lifu, however, he abandoned this conclusion, stating that "1t 
now seems probable that the breeding of Nautilus . . . is subject to a definite law 
of periodicity” (Mature, 1897, p. 403). 
