24 BARBOUR: ZOOGEOGRAPHY. 



Malay Peninsula or a near by island. The type is old, without definite locality 

 and it cannot as now restricted be identified certainly with any particular species. 

 One thing is certain, van Kampen was wrong in suggesting that the species 

 ever came from Java. 



Java has but six fresh-water turtles, considerably fewer than either Borneo 

 or Sumatra. 



There are thirty-one lizards known, but not a single one of these is of a genus 

 not found elsewhere. Two genera, however, have the same distribution as the 

 ophidian genus Elapoides. They are Harpesaurus, with one species each in 

 Java and Sumatra, — H. tricinctus (A. Dum.), and H. beccarii Doria, — and Den- 

 dragama, also with one species each in Java and Sumatra, namely, D. fruh- 

 storferi Boettger, and D. boulengeri Doria. The two Javan species seem to be 

 confined in their distribution to that part of Java lying nearest to Sumatra. 

 Whether this is significant or not, it is difficult to say, as this happens to be the 

 part of Java which we know better than any other. 



Regarding Varanus nebulosus (Gray), Werner says: "fundort 'Java' 

 sicher, Belegexemplar in Wiener Hofmuseum." In spite of this certainty, it is 

 most probable that the locality of the specimen is incorrect, as it is known to be 

 a wide-ranging, not uncommon form over much of southeastern Asia. Only two 

 species besides the two spoken of above are peculiar to the island, in all only 

 about twelve per cent. 



The snakes are sixty-five in number, of which seven or eight (about eleven 

 per cent) are peculiar to the island. As with the lizards, there is no autogenous 

 genus. It is important to note the presence of the genus Pseudoxeonodon, with 

 two peculiar species on the island, while no other congeneric form is known 

 throughout the whole archipelago. Oligodon bitorquatus Boie has been reported 

 from Ambon on the assumption that Rabdosoma amboinense Bleeker was a syn- 

 onym of this species. There is probably no doubt with regard to its being 

 identical; but, Hke so very many of Bleeker's records of locaUties for reptiles, it 

 was in all probability based upon a Javan specimen, which in some way or other 

 was credited to Ambon. This shuffling about of reptile localities was very 

 characteristic of Bleeker's herpetological work, and it is obviously unsafe to 

 place any reliance whatever upon them. It is quite impossible to conceive of a 

 species being confined to Java and Ambon. 



Regarding the occurrence of Brachyorrhus albus (Linne) in Java, it is 

 probable that the case is similar to that of the preceding species. Schlegel 

 (Essai phys. Serp., 1837, 2, p. 33-35) reports it as being excessively rare in Java, 



