NOTES. 



85 



most of them on the Hopewell estate. Balangoda, there was one 

 small snake which presented a difficulty in si)ite of the fact that 

 nhe naming of Ceylonese snakes has been rendered a straiglit- 

 forward if not altogether an easy task by the publication of the 

 volume on Reptilia and Batrachiain 1890 by Mr. G. A. Boulenger, 

 F.R.S., in the " Fauna of British India." In this case, however, 

 I deemed it advisable to appeal directly to headquarters, and. 

 Mr. Drummond Hay kindlj' permitted me to send the snake to 

 the Natural History Department of the British Museum in London. 

 In his reply (dated. July 2, 1903) Mr. Boulenger wrote : "The 

 little snake is an interesting addition to the Fauna of Ceylon. 

 It is a Gallo2jhis triynac'ulatus (Rept. Ind., p. 384), a species which 

 w-as only known from India and Burma. I should have been 

 glad to keep the specimen for the Museum, but as it is of so great 

 local interest to you I return it with the request that, should a 

 second specimen turn up in Ceylon, you will remember the 

 British Museum." 



---7 



Lateral and dorsal views of the head of Oallophis Mmaculatus. (Partly after 

 Ciunther, P. Z. S., 1859, pi. XVI.. fig. E). 1, rostral shield; 2. internasals ; 

 o, prasf rentals ; 4, supraocular ; 5, temporal : 6. parietals ; 7, occipital; 8,j;sixth 

 and last upper labial ; 9, frontal. 



I have since found that there was already a single example of 

 this species in the Colombo Museum, which is recorded in Mr. A. 

 Haly's " Report on the Collection of Reptilia in the Colombo 

 Museum" (1891, p. 25) in these words: "One specimen, bund 

 of the Tissamaharama tank, March. 1877 (bad state). Mr. H. 

 Nevill obtained another specimen in the Trincomalee dockyard, 

 1890." It is not stated what became of Mr. Nevill's snake, but 

 assuming that the identification was correct, Mr. Drummond 

 Hay's specimen (which he has been good enough to present to the 

 Colombo Museum) is the third known from Ceylon. It was 

 picked up by him on the road between Dambulla and Trinco- 

 malee, the exact spot being where the road enters on the bund of 

 the Kanthalai tank. 



It is a very small snake, 1Q\ inches long with a diameter not 

 exceeding three-sixteenths of an inch. The maximum length of 



N 25-03 



