156 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [april 4 , 
with the same kind of difficulty from an opposite cause ; the intense 
sun’s light has to he obscured by a dark glass, which, at the same 
time, completely obliterates the spider-lines ; these are only seen on 
the sun’s face. In consequence, the advent of the sun’s edge to a 
wire cannot he observed ; the line must be fairly on the sun’s face 
before we can see it, and thus the noted instant is necessarily too 
late, — too late by a quantity depending on the power of the telescope 
and on the skill of the observer. Hence the estimate of the sun’s 
apparent diameter from observations of the meridian passage may 
he expected to err slightly in defect, while the thence-deduced 
right ascension must be too great. 
But, if a thin cloud pass before us, we use a paler screen and see 
the wires over the whole field while the sun’s edge remains distinctly 
defined ; the observations are then satisfactorily made. It occurred 
to me that, at all times, we may make an artificial cloud, and, to- 
day just four weeks ago, I laid a thin muslin over the object-glass 
of my alt-azimuth, and got all that is needed. 
5. Observations on the Structural Characters of certain new 
or little-known Earthworms. By Frank E. Beddard, 
M.A., Prosector to the Zoological Society of London, and 
Lecturer on Biology at Guy’s Hospital. (Plate Y.) 
The present paper contains a description of five apparently new 
species of Lumbricidse from Australia and New Zealand, one of 
these species being perhaps the type of a new genus, which I have 
named Neodrilus ; the remaining species are Acanthodrilus neglectus, 
from New Zealand, Perichoeta newcombei , Urochceta, sp. ?, from 
Australia, and P. upoluensis, from one of the Pacific islands. I have 
endeavoured to make these descriptions as full as the material, 
in many cases in an excellent state of preservation, has enabled me 
to do. I have also incorporated into this paper some few notes 
on Pericliceta antarctica } Baird, a species which has not yet been 
sufficiently discriminated. 
Acanthodrilus neglectus , n. sp. 
In my paper on New Zealand Lumbricidse, recently published in 
the “ Proceedings of the Zoological Society ” (P. Z. S., 1885, pt. iv.), 
