70 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST, 
years ago Professor Dendy, F.R.S. (then of Melbourne, now 
of King’s College, London), discovered that two species oc- 
curring in Victoria, one of which also extends to. Tasmania,, 
and two or three species found in. New Zealand were ovipar- 
ous, the eggs possessing strongly marked insect character. This. 
was an extremely interesting observation, as it gave further 
important evidence of the relationship of Peripatus to the 
Insecta. Professor Dendy founded the genus Voperipatus for 
this interesting form, and we have in Victoria 0. oviparus and. 
O. insignis. During my investigations I have on several occa~ 
sions found specimens of the first-named species in New South. 
Wales, near Moss Vale, thus extending its range to within 
100 miles of Sydney. Ovoperipatus is characterised by the 
possession of a large fleshy ovipositor which is absent in /e7i- 
patoides orientalis, the species most frequently occurring in 
New South Wales. Ooperipatus ovipurus has a beautiful dia~ 
mond pattern on the dorsal surface by which it can be very 
readily distinguished from its relative Peripatoides. In New 
South Wales I have found P. orientalis to have a marvellous, 
variation in range of colour, from deep black to a light tawny 
brown, with many intermediate colours. I exhibit a large 
series of this species of bfoth sexes, illustrating this range. 
of colour, and also examples of O. oviparus showing the charac- 
teristic ovipositor and dorsal pattern. 
We will now consider a few characteristic New Zealand. 
specimens, foremost amongst which comes the famous Tuatara 
lizard Sphenodon punctata. As most of you are 
doubtless aware, the earliest birds were derived from 
reptilean ancestors, and the relationship, particularly 
in the structure of the skeleton, can be readily traced 
in living birds and lizards. The great interest attaching to 
the New Zealand lizard under consideration, lies in the fact 
that it is the closest living link between the two orders. Tau- 
tara constitutes an ancestral type surviving from long past 
ages, and retaining more than any other lizard the primitive. 
avian characters. In other words, we may describe it as a 
bird which through some cause has stopped in the course of 
evolution. Other lizards have maintained their reptilian. 
character and have gone on developing down the true repti- 
lian line, the birds, meantime, having also continually di-. 
verged, each on its own course, until there has arisen the mar- 
vellous diversity with which we are now familiar. Curiously: 
enough the,Crocodile follows Tautara as the next of kin to 
the birds, but the gap there is greatly wider, and to this in- 
teresting New Zealand lizard belongs the dignity of closest 
relationship with the birds. There is one character very well 
marked in Sphenedon in common with a great many other liz- 
ards, the possession of the pineal eye. If one looks closely; 
