308 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXV. 



enclose dark reddish patches. The lower chin is tipped with black and 

 the throat mottled. The circular marks on the mid dorsal line may or 

 may not run together, though in the adult, they may remain separate. 



The young ones move very sluggishly and drink milk when offered, as 

 soon as they have cast off the skin. 



C. R. NARAYAN RAO, 



Central College, Bangalore, Professor of Zoology. 



19th Juno 1917. 



No. XIV.— EXCEPTIONALLY LARGE SAW SCALED VIPER 



(EC HIS CARINATA). 



Whilst our men were digging on the Mohmand blockade line in Decem- 

 ber, we got four Echis carinata in one mound and an earth snake and what 

 looked like a buft'-striped keel-back. 



The previous day we got three EcJiis. Several were killed daily, so they 

 are very numerous near Shabkadr. 1 believe we told you of the 31 inch 

 Echis carinata killed by Major Rennick near Mascat in 1915 ? It was seen 

 and measured by several of us. 



F. F. MAJOR, Lt.-Col., 

 NowsHERA, N.W. F. P., 95th Russell's Infantry. 



\Sth February 1917. 



No. XV.— NOTES ON AN INTERESTING SPECIMEN OF THE 

 SEA SNAKE {HYDROPHIS C^RULESCENS). 



On the 2nd June 1917, I obtained from the fishing nets at Colaba a spe- 

 cimen of this snake which proved to be a gravid female. It was 2 feet 

 4 inches in length of which the tail accounted for 2^ inches. The lepidosis 

 is typical. The costals numbered 40 at a point, 2 headslengths behind the 

 head, 49 in mid body, and 43 at a point 2 headlengths before the anus. 

 The ventrals number 316. As is usual in this species the parietals did not 

 find contact with the postoculars on either side. 



The chief interest attaching to the specimen was the retention in the 

 abdomen of a withered foetus some 4 inches long in the posterior ovary. 

 This contained in the usual sac, was intimately adherent to the walls 

 from which I had much difficulty in separating it. The folds of the f^jctus 

 were also adherent, and the young embryo in a state of degeneration, 

 with both cephalic and caudal extremities maldeveloped. The anterior 

 ovary contained 3 fertilised ova about half an inch or more in length. 



It seems clear that the withered fojtus was a product of last year's con- 

 ception, and that it had died, and been retained in the abdomen where it 

 was undergoing degeneration. The eggs were obviously the result of this 

 year's mating. 



F. WALL, Lieut. -Col. , i.m.s. 

 Bombay, 4f// Jtme 1917. 



No. XVI.— A LARGE CARP PROM THE EUPHRATES RIVEK. 



I am sending the Museum by means of a Captain of one of the ships that 

 call here a skin of a fish caught in the Euphrates at Hakika. 



This fish was 215 lbs. in weight, 6'-4" long and 3'-10" in girth. 



It was speared by an Arab while lying at the bottom of the river about 

 the month of September last year. It is the large mouthed, silver-coloured 

 fish which we usually call the '' Euphrates Salmon.'' It lias t^vo barbels tm 



