DISTRIBUTION OF OPHIDIANS. 235 



stant local varieties, though only distinguishable by a 

 slightly different disposition of the colours : to this number 

 pertain the TortrLx rufa, the Coluber melanurus, the Iler- 

 petodryas oxycephalus, the Dryiophis prasina, the Dipsas 

 dendrophila, and the Tropidonotus chrysargus. Among 

 the Moluccas, there is only the Island of Amboina of which 

 the productions are in the least known. There are seen 

 three or four species of Snakes which are also seen in Java ; 

 but it does not seem that the Sunda isles afford the Lyco- 

 don modestus, the Boa carinata, the Dendrophis rhodo- 

 pleuron, nor the Python amethystinus. Timor is in some 

 degree intermediate, as regards its productions, between 

 Java and the Moluccas : we find there many animals of 

 the former, whilst there exist there a good number that 

 also live in the archipelago just mentioned. The Python 

 of Timor is perhaps different from that of Amboina ; a 

 very curious Homalopsis, H. leucobalia, has been there 

 discovered ; the Lycodon Hebe of that island has its tints 

 deejDer than the variety of Java ; and the Coluber radiatus 

 is represented in Timor by an analogous, yet different 

 species, Col. subradiatus. New Guinea, with the adjacent 

 islands, all shewing, more or less, analogy with the other 

 Mala3"asian Islands, on the other hand, approximates to New 

 Holland, by the presence of certain animals, as the Pe- 

 taurus, Kangaroos, the Perameles, &c. M. Muller has 

 discovered a very curious Zonurus, an almost blind Acon- 

 tias, a Typhlops of singular form, a very remarkable 

 horned Frog, a new Ceratophrys, a very beautiful Monitor, 

 a Scink of very anomalous structure, and many other very 

 beautiful and unknown Reptiles. There also exist in that 

 island several new species of Serpents, as the Tropidonotus 

 picturatus, the Elaps Miilleri, species which are also found 

 at Waigiou. It remains that I should say a few words on 

 the Philippine Islands, of which the zoology is only known 

 by a few objects, collected in the \^cinity of Manilla in the 

 Isle of Lu^on, the study of which has given rise to the curi- 

 ous remark, that there exists a great analogy between certain 

 productions of that island and of Ceylon. This fact is very 

 striking, at least in regard to serpents, of which several 

 species have never been observed, except in those two 



