190 IDENTITY OF THE AUSTRALIAN PERIPATUS, 
Of P. capensis, Sedgwick says : " The period of gestation is 
thirteen months; that is to say, the ova pass into the oviducts 
about one month before the young of the preceding year are 
born The young are born in April and May " 
(Monograph, p. 165). 
Of P. novai-zealandiw, Captain Hutton says that it appears to 
breed all the year round; and that he found the uterus crowded 
with embryos in September and November. The views of Mr. 
Sedgwick and Miss Sheldon are summed up by the latter as 
follows : — " Probably the ova pass from the ovary into the uterus 
in December, and the young are born in July, the development 
thus occupying a period of about eight months. This, though 
apparently usually the case, cannot be universal, since in each lot 
there were one or two females which contained embryos ready for 
birth, and also the embryos in one female vary somewhat in age." 
Sclater, therefore, hardly satisfactorily states the case when he 
says of both the South African and the New Zealand Peripatus 
that " the development of the embryos, though going on all the 
year round, commences at one particular season, so that all the 
embryos found in the uterus of the female are approximately of 
one age." (Studies from the Morph. Lab. Cambridge, Vol. iv. p. 
215, 1889.) 
Of the Neotropical species, Sedgwick remarks : — " Embryos 
of very different ages in same uterus, and births probably taking 
place all the year round "; and of P. Edwardsii — " The uterus 
contains embryos in all stages of development, and the young, 
which are fully developed at birth, are presumably born at 
different times of the year." (Monograph, pp. 184 and 190.) 
The Australian Peripatus with which I am familiar seems in 
these matters to occupy an intermediate position between P. 
capensis and the Neotropical species. If one cannot say of it 
that it breeds all the year round, or that the uterus contains 
embryos in all stages of development, still less can one definitely 
particularise any single month as par excellence the breeding 
season; or assert that embryos of approximately one age only are 
to be found in pregnant specimens. And, so far as I can judge, 
