

JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890. 



to time, however limited may be the field of inquiry selected, to see 

 what additions have been made to our knowledge of the distribution 

 of species. In no branch perhaps of Natural History has the distri- 

 bution of species been so incompletely worked out, as iu . the case 

 of the Ophidia. A glance at the existing works of reference will 

 show how very little is known of the ltabitat of the great majority 

 of the species described. 



Take the case of this particular Tree Viper now received from 

 Kanara. Giinther says it is peculiar to Ceylon, and Theobald and 

 Nicholson mention no other locality in which it is found. According 

 to thesame authorities, T. anavnallensis, another Tree Viper, ofwhich 

 several specimens, live and pickled, have been procured by members 

 of our Society at Khandalla and the Mahim Woods, occurs only in 

 the Anamallays and the Wynaad. A third tree viper, T. strigatus, 

 obtained in North Kanara by Mr v H. S. Wise, has previously been 

 found only in the Nilghiris and the Deccan. Similarly, Callophis 

 nigrescens, of which we have specimens both from North Kanara and 

 Mahableshwar, occurs, according to the books, only in the Nilghiris, 

 the Shevaroy Hills, the Wynaad and the Anamallays. Another 

 Callophis, C. trimaculatus, whose habitat, according to the same 

 authorities, is Tennaserim, and possibly Bengal, has lately been 

 received in the Society's Museum from Colaba (Rombay) and 

 Bandora. 



In these and scores of similar instances the incompleteness of the 

 record is not without some excuse. But the meagre account of the 

 " Phursa" (Echis carinata), to be found in all works on Indian 

 snakes, is less excusable. Giinther says it is common in many parts 

 of the peninsula of India, in the Anamallay mountains, and in the 

 vicinity of Madras. Fayrer says it is absent from Bengal, common in 

 the North- Western Provinces, the Central Provinces, Punjab, and 

 generally in the south of India. Theobald says it inhabits North- 

 western and Central India, the Punjab, and Southern India, while 

 Nicholson merely remarks that is not common but widely spread. 

 No mention is made by any of these authorities of the extraordinary 

 abundance in which this viper is found in Sind and the Konkau. 

 The remarkable facts disclosed by the annual official returns showing 

 the results of the measures taken for the extermination of venomous 



