21,2 Taylor: Herpetological Fauna, I 197 
Two specimens of this rare species were collected on Polillo 
Island in July, 1920. Most of the specimens of these long- 
tailed species that I have collected have been found in root 
masses of aérial ferns. Whether or not aérial root masses are 
the normal habitat of Typhlops I cannot say. However, my 
own experience in collecting has given evidence that such is 
the case. In Mindanao all but two specimens of the numerous 
species of Typhlops that I found were collected from the root 
masses of aérial ferns. Accordingly, in Polillo I began a sys- 
tematic search for the species within the fern roots, sending my 
assistants into trees to cut the ferns from their resting places, 
then cutting the tough masses to pieces when they had fallen. 
From more than one hundred root masses so treated two speci- 
mens of Typhlops cumingii, three of Typhlops braminus, two 
of Haplonodon philippinensis, and a new species of lizard, 
Siaphos herrei, were captured. 
Measurements and scale counts of Typhlops cumingii (Gray). 
No. 300. No. 299. 
Total length _____-- mm 453 373 
fs bps ea ney raga ts Co mr cnn ae ep ge eh Ed TON ae pales ap cad mm.. 27 25 
WCU OR DGG 2 ooo ee ep mm.. 8 7 
CO RNS, GO ON i eee el i lg a mm.- 6 5.3 
WME OF NOOO oo oe eo ce Scone oc ee ee mm.. 6.5 5.7 
ODL OE ORG oes ate areca ae ee ere anes mm 4 4 
Scales on belly from mouth to vent, approximately '__------.-.------ mm.. 480 496 
Seales under tad occas ca. eee ee eee one cet aee mm.. 40 39 
BGS TOW EON HOUT: oc5 5.7 dn a scakaciee ce cecceeusce mm 26 24 
Tediaridth fii ttl leneth: occ ce sect oe oa onc see cee .times.. 4.5 4.8 
Body width in body length <<< 2220... Foose csc laa cc ccc esc ncc ed G0... 56.5 53.2 
Variation.—The rostral is slightly more than one-half as wide 
as the head and fails to reach the level of the eye by a very 
slight distance. 
Dryocalamus mecroryi sp. nov. 
Type.—No. 1517, E. H. Taylor collection; collected at Abung- 
abung, Basilan (on the southern coast), October 23, 1920, by 
E. H. Taylor. 
Description of type—Rostral distinctly broader than high, 
forming its longest suture with internasals, only slightly visible 
above; internasals about as wide as long or a little longer, form- 
ing their longest sutures with prefrontals, the suture with nasals 
curved; prefrontals about as long as wide, broadly in contact 
with loreal and nasal; frontal one and two-thirds times as long 
as broad, longer than its distance from tip of snout, slightly 
