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Show 1887.] PERIPATUS FROM BRITISH GUIANA. 133 I do not give a name to this Dominican and British-Guianan Peripatus, since 1 understand that Mr. Sedgwick is about to publish a monograph on the species of the genus Peripatus, and will include in his work a description of the specimen from Dominica in the British Museum. All the specimens of Peripatus obtained by me were found, with one exception, in the grounds round Mr. im Thurn's house, Mac-casseema, on the Pomeroon River. Maccasseema is situated on the top of a sand-hill about 30 feet above the river, and is surrounded on all sides by the swampy forest, except in front, where it faces the river. The specimens were all found under rotten logs of wood, or under the decaying stalks of the Cokerite Palm (Maximiliana martiana). I never saw one actually in the rotten wood, as has been described by some previous observers. The single exception was found about a mile from Maccasseema, up a creek running into the river Pomeroon. This individual was also found under a more or less rotten log close to an Indian house. Specimens of Peripatus were exceedingly scarce, and it took a long time to collect even the few I brought home. I should mention that examples of Peripatus have also been obtained in Demeraraby Mr. Quelch, the Curator of the Georgetown Museum, who found them about twenty miles from Georgetown on the Hoorubea Creek (36). In offering these preliminary notes on this most interesting animal, I have not entered into further details, because Prof. Moseley and Mr. Sedgwick are about to publish an account of the different species of Peripatus, and will incorporate their observations on the present form into their work. But before concluding I must express my thanks to Mr. im Thurn for all the help he gave me in my collecting, more especially for allowing me the use of Douglas, the captain of his Indian boat's crew, as collector, for to his sharp eyes I owe most of my specimens. APPENDIX. The numbers appended to the authors' names in this paper refer to the following list of publications, which forms, I believe, a nearly complete bibliography of original works on Peripatus. To most of the titles I have added a few remarks explaining the contents of the memoirs. 1 ne publications that I have not been able to examine at first hand are marked with an asterisk. (1) GUILDING, L. Mollusca Caribbaeana; an account of a new genus of Mollusca. Zool. Journ. ii. pp. 443-444, pl. xiv. 1826. Contains the original description of the genus Peripatus and species P. juliformis, found by the author in the forests of St. Vincent. The author considered it an aberrant form of slug. A fair coloured plate is given. |