920 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV 111. 



" Occasional aberrant specimens may be seen with only 2 loreals or even with 

 4 or 5." In a young specimen in my possession there are two loreals on the 

 right side and only one on the left. Is not this very extraordinary ? 



Again, in a specimen of Dipsadomorphus trigonutus the shields on the right 

 side are normal, whilst on the left side there is a small wedge-shaped shield 

 between the 2nd and 3rd supralabial. It touches the squarish loreal and also 

 the supraocular. Is it another loreal ? 



J. P. MULLAN. 



Bombay, 11th August 1908. 



No. XXVI.— NOTES ON A GRAVID FEMALE OF SIEBOLD'S 

 WATERSNAKE (HYPSIRR1NA SIEBOLDll). 



I have lately received from Mr. N. V. Reid a fine specimen of Sie- 

 bold's watersnake, interesting especially in that it is a gravid female, con- 

 taining 5 foetus, and 7 nonfertile eggs. 



It was found beneath a stack of wood about 20 yards from a lake 

 on the 21st July this year at Champaran, Bengal ( the extreme North- 

 West District of Behar). The scale rows in the mother are 29 two-heads 

 lengths behind the head, 29 in midbody and 22 two-heads lengths before 

 the vent ; the ventrals and subcaudals 152x47. The lepidosis of the 

 3 young extracted from the membrane, all of which are females, is as follows 

 respectively :— No. 1, scales 29—29—25, ventrals 148 + 47; No. 2, scales 29—31 

 — 25,veutrals 147+46; No. 3, scales 27—29—21, ventrals 143 + ?, tail de- 

 formed. 



The length of one foetus is 7| inches, and they all have the appearance 

 of being ready to be born. 



Members of the family HomolopsinEe are all reputed to be viviparous in 

 habit, but the fact that oviparous and viviparous species are to be found in the 

 same genus ( Tropidonotus, Lachesis, etc.) should deter one from making 

 too sweeping assertions with regard to the breeding habits of other gene- 

 ra, and more especially of families. I am not aware of any previous re- 

 cord showing that this species is viviparous. 



F. WALL, Major, i.m.s., c.m.z.s. 

 Darjeeling, 30th August 1908. 



