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days may elapse between the laying of each egg. The young birds will 
consequently come out of the mound in the order in which the eggs 
were laid, as it is evident that incubation must commence imme- 
diately the egg is laid. If, therefore, twenty eggs are laid in forty or 
sixty days, there must be this number of days difference in the age 
between the first and the last of the brood, and no two of the young 
birds could possibly be of the same age. 
Perhaps the most remarkable feature connected with this bird is 
the very perfect development of the young, reminding us strongly 
of the next division of the vertebrate animals (the Reptiles),—not 
that I can see any connecting links between the great divisions of 
the Vertebrata. 
But although it is only in the Mammalia that the young are fed by 
the fluid secreted in the mammary glands, yet in the highest order 
of the class Aves (the Parrots) the young are fed partly by the 
fluid secreted in the cesophagus, mixed with the softened and par- 
tially digested food from the crop of the parent birds. 
Now in the Talegalla we seem to approach the reptilian character 
not only in the form and general appearance of the eggs, but in the 
manner in which they are deposited and the absence of care be- 
stowed upon the young. 
I believe I am correct in saying that, with this exception, all birds 
feed or provide food for their young, while, on the other hand, I am 
not aware that any reptile is known to do so, and that all the reptiles 
that lay eggs leave them to hatch, and the young to provide for them- 
selves,—their young, as in the Talegalla, coming forth in a very perfect 
and well-developed condition, and being enabled to seek and obtain 
their food without the aid of the parents. I therefore cannot avoid 
considering the Talegalla and its allies as exhibiting in this respect 
the lowest form in birds. 
4, On a West-Arrican Genus oF Snakes (Merzopon). 
By Dr. ALsrert GUNTHER, 
Fischer has described a Colubrine Snake from West Africa with 
the name of Meizodon regularis*. Finding its dentition similar to 
that of Coryphodon, from which it considerably differs in general 
habit, he thought himself justified in separating it generically as Mei- 
zodon. I have had the opportunity of examining not only Meizodon 
regularis, but also two other Snakes which, in their dentition and 
in general habit, are the species nearest allied to it, and from which 
it becomes evident that all three are to be removed from the family 
of Colubride to that of Coronellide. In order to fix their position 
in the latter family, and to see whether it were possible to keep up 
a West-African Coronelline form of Snakes with the maxillary teeth 
gradually increasing in strength, for which the name of Meizodon 
* Hamburg. Abhandl. Gebiet Naturw. 1856, p, 112. 
