— 203 — 



Typhlops blaufordii Blge. 

 Two s})ecimens. 



Boodon liiieatus Dum. Bibr. 



One specimen. 



Dasypeltis scabra L. 



One specimen. 



Leptodira hotamboeia Laue. 



BoL'LENGEE, Cat. Sil. III, p. 89. Weknek, Sitzber. K. Akad. Wiss. Wien. 

 Bd. 116. Abt. I. 1907. 



One specimen; length 195 mm. 



In the paper ({uoted above Weenee says he is able to recognize 

 two dill'erent geograpliical forms or peidiaps species of the common 

 African snake Leptodira hotamboeia, a north one from the 

 Soudan and a south one, spread over the whole of East- and South- 

 Africa. According to him, tlie north form should be distinct from the 

 common south one througli its narrower head, a darker colour on the 

 upi)er surfaces, the absence of dark temporal band, and 4 — 5 pairs of 

 chinshields (instead of 3 — 4). Finding in this collection a small 

 specimen of this species which, possil)ly, on account of the habitat, 

 could be mistaken for a L. attarensis, which is Weenee's name 

 for liis north form of L. hotamboeia, I decided to go further into 

 the matter of this question. For this purpose I liave examined about 

 50 specimens from Cape, Natal, »Caffraria«, Congo, the German East- 

 Africa, Abyssinia, and the Nile-regions, most of tbem in the coUections 

 of the Natural History Museum in Stockholm. It is true that I have 

 hat! only two specimens from the regions of the supposed north form, 

 but tinding that at least one of these does not differ from the common 

 appearance of the species and moreover that the characters which should 

 distinguish the north form are also to be seen in many specimens from 

 other parts of the habitat of the species, I can not see any reason for 

 distinguishing a L. attarensis at least with the characteristics which 

 are employed by Weenee. 



At a tirst glance, however, at the specimen from Harrar, it can 

 appear as if Weenee was right, for — with the exception of a small 

 difterence in the proportion between the length and the breadth of the 

 head — it corresponds very well with Weenee's descrii)tion of L. 

 attarensis and seemed to me at tirst to differ distinctly from the 



