THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 179 
Miss McAnene brought a number of her young pupils with 
her, who, hidden amongst the trees, delighted us with bird calls 
at intervals during the day. We were honoured by the pre- 
sence of a distinguished visitor, Dr. W. D. van Leeumen, who 
made a fine collection of Australian flowers to take back with 
him to Java. : 
Returning to the railway station, Mr. Watson proposed a 
hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Cheel, who, despite pressure of 
work, kindly acted as leader of this delightful excursion. This 
was carried by acclamation. 
THISTLE Harris. 
INTELLIGENCE IN SERPULA WORM. 
At the March meeting Mr. David G. Stead related an in- 
teresting experiment carried out at Watson’s Bay, which indi- 
cated not only that the common Serpula Tube-worm of the lit- 
toral was highly sensitive to light, but that it was capable of 
rapid and intelligent observation in certain directions. 
In a recently formed marine aquarium—a tank of about: 
1.75 cubic feet capacity—an embryo Serpula had established it- 
self; the tube growing to about 42 mm. in a period of not more: 
than 35 days. After a great sensibility to light had been de- 
finitely established, the experiment was tried, of suddenly inter-- 
cepting the main light source, with the hand. “Instantaneously,. 
the worm darted back into its tube. After a moment it re- 
appeared; when the hand again intercepted the light—with like: 
result. This was repeated eight times, when it was observed! 
that the worm’s “head” was not withdrawn so far, and the re- - 
appearance was more rapid. At the twelfth test the worm was 
unaffected by the occultation of light, and remained with the 
antennae fully spread out. After a lapse of half an hour the 
experiments were repeated. On this occasion the worm had lost 
memory of the non-harmfulness of the interference with the 
light, and quickly retreated—repeating the performance till the 
eleventh pass of the hand; when it again became callous to the 
hand movement. In each case, after the worm had become 
“calloused”—or where its intelligent observation and_ vestigial 
memory had indicated to it that the light interference was not 
harmful—no amount of rapid or slow movement of the hand or 
body of the observer, had the slightest effect upon the worm; 
which remained in the normal “expanded” attitude. Further ex- 
periments would be made. 
