148 The Ottawa Naturalist. [October 



Agriculture," Mr. C. W. Nash, of Toronto, gives some interest- 

 ing- notes on the myrtle warbler, and to these we refer the reader. 

 The myrtle warbler is between five and six inches in length, 

 and, in his spring- plumage, the colours of the male bird are, on 

 the upper parts, of a slaty blue streaked with black, and having- 

 some bar-blotches on the wings and tail white, the throat and 

 under parts being pure white, with some yellow on the crown, 

 sides and rump. The plumage of the female is much similar, but 

 of rathf r a duller hue. 



ZOOLOGY. 



A Canadian Two-headed Snake. 



In the thirteenth volume of Transactions of the Wisconsin 

 Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, Mr. Roswell Hill Johnson 

 has recently published an interesting paper entitled " Axial Bifur- 

 cation in Snakes." This paper, it is stated, "contains descrip- 

 tions and skiagraphs of thirteen two-headed snakes, a recapitula- 

 tion of others previously described, and a concluding general 

 treatment of this abnormality." Of the thirteen specimens 

 described and figured therein, only one, a small double-headed 

 snake from South America, was "found to have scales imperme- 

 able to the Roentgen rays." The specimen referred to in Mr. 

 Johnson's paper as " Case V," and represented on Plate viii 

 thereof, belongs to the Geological Survey of Canada, and was 

 lent by the present writer. It is a small two-headed garter 

 snake, a little over seven inches in length, that was found 

 on the shore of Moira Lake, near Madoc, Ont., by Mr. Eugene 

 Coste, in August, 1866, and is now preserved in alcohol. 

 In regard to this specimen Mr. Johnson makes the following 

 remarks : " It is a Eutainia sirtalis sirtalis, Linn." (or, in 

 other words, an otherwise typical garter snake). "The light 

 dorsal stripe divides caudad to the point of division of the verte- 

 bral column. " The angle presented by the frontal planes of the 

 two heads is nearly a right angle, that of the sagittal planes is 

 about 70'^. " The right head is slightly longer and broader than 

 the left one." 



This Canadian double-headed snake, which would seem to be 

 the first and only one that has yet been recorded, is now and has 

 long been on exhibition in one of the cases in the Museum. 



J. F. Whiteaves. 



Ottawa, Sept. 30th, 1902. 



