388 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVI. 



Buckland in his " Curiosities of Natural History " (p. 177) says there are 

 two specimens of snakes with two heads on one body in the Royal College of 

 Surgeons' Museum, London, and one of these he identified as Coluber nalrix 

 (now Tropidonotus natrix), the common grass snake found in England. 



In the Journal of the Linnean Society for 1868 is mentioned a sea-snake, 

 Hydropliis sublcevis (now H. cyanocinctus) caught near Madras, with two heads. 



Nicholson in his book "Indian Snakes" (p. 22) mentions a young two-headed 

 Tropidonotus quincunciatus (now T. piscator) in the Madras Museum, and says 

 " this monstrosity is apparently rather common amongst the sea-snakes" and 

 further remarks : " they do not, however, appear to survive their birth long, the 

 specimens to be found in museums being of small size." That these freaks are 

 as common as Nicholson remarks, I am inclined to doubt, and Mr. Phipson in 

 a letter to me, dated 2nd February 1905, says : " I have been collecting snakes 

 in this country for the last 26 years, and have examined thousands of sea- 

 snakes in the fishermen's nets here, but I have never seen an instance of this 

 form of teratology." The specimen I have described in this note is the only 

 one of many hundreds of snakes I have examined in the fresh state and in 

 museums which was so distinguished. 



In " The Field''' for 31st October, 1903, a Mr. Fulton writes as follows :— 

 " Some time ago when in Australia I was one day helping the men on a sheep 

 station to collect wood previous to the shearing season. In cutting up some old 

 timber we came across an old snake with several young ones. One of these had 

 two perfect heads on, so I secured it, and brought it home." 



S. S. Flower in the P. Z. S., 1899, p. 677, mentions a water snake, Homalopsis 

 buccata, in the Siamese Museum, with " two heads, side by side, each about 

 equally perfectly developed." 



In the Madras Times for 13th January, 1897, a specimen of a two-headed 

 snake is mentioned in the possession of a Mr. E. C. Fischer, of New York City, 

 then in Madras. It was identified as an American hog-nosed snake Heterodon 

 simus and was about a foot long, and over four months old. 



The following remarks were made : — " The snake lives in a glass box, and 

 feeds with both heads simultaneously on milk, raw meat, and blood. Mr. Fischer 

 finds it best to feed both heads at once, for strange to say, they appear to be 

 jealous of each other, and sometimes fight ; at other times they play with one 

 another. The animal seems to know Mr. Fischer, for it comes to the side of 

 its box, and welcomes him by protruding its tongues in sign of joy. A photo- 

 graph of the snake was recently given in the Scientific American. 



Fyzabad, 1st February, 1905. F. WALL, Captain, I.M.S., C.M.Z.S. 



No. XXIII.— WINTER PLUMAGE OF THE MALE BENGAL 

 FLORICAN (SYPHEOTIS BENGALENSIS). 



There appears to be some doubt about the male winter plumage of the Bengal 

 Florican, since some of our best ornithologists are at variance on this point. 



The most recent work I have access to is Oates' " Game Birds of India." In 

 part I, p. 418, this author describes the male in winter plumage, and the female 



