54 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.73 



this species by Boulenger* or Schmidt^ but not those of a Dahomey 

 snake recorded by Chabanaud^ as being 1,610 mm. in total length. 



The ventrals in these males^ are 192 and 197 as against a range of 

 185-189 in Schmidt's Congo series; in the single female they are 216 

 as against 216-224 in the Congo examples. Caudals in males 71-73 

 as against 64-69 (Congo) ; in female 54 as against 58-66 (Congo) . It 

 would rather appear as if Tanganyika Territory snakes may form an 

 easterly race with more ventrals and caudals in the males than is the 

 case with central African examples; without more material, however, 

 it would be rash to draw too definite conclusions. Very few authors 

 have given scale counts, and where they have done so thej'- have usu- 

 ally omitted any reference to the sex; the literature of the species 

 consists chiefly of located records. 



Dorsal scale counts are all 27-25-21 in my three specimens as 

 against 23-21-17 and 25-23-19 in the Congo series of seven snakes. 

 Scales about eye, exclusive of the supraocular, are 6 or 7; temporals 

 4 to 6 in first row. Two superposed loreals in both Kizumbi snakes, 

 an anterior and a posterior loreal in the Dodoma reptile. Upper 

 labials 5-6, lower 9-10. In life these snakes were uniformly grayish, 

 in alcohol they are grayish brown ; no trace of the white or black spot- 

 ting of the West Coast forms. 



Gurukezi and Kifinda said that they had never been bitten by this 

 species, but that they believed it to be very poisonous, one's skin 

 becoming the color (gray) of the snake after being bitten. For 

 treatment they employ a "dawa" (medicine) called " kilindelama- 

 gunda." 



Needless to say, it is a perfectly harmless species, and these consti- 

 tute the first East African examples I have seen. They did not eat 

 in captivity, but drank deeply. 



DASYPELTIS SCABER (Linnaeus) 



EGG-EATING SNAKE 



A very young one from Kikombo and a slough on the station at 

 Nzingi. 



CROTAPHOPELTIS HOTAMBOEIA (Laurentl) 



WHITE-LIPPED SNAKE 



One adult was brought in at Dodoma and I caught two young; one 

 outside our headquarters, the other under the bark of a fallen tree at 

 Mukwese, near Manyoni. Two of these snakes were bitten by an 

 angry boomslang and both succumbed in a very short time. Th© 



"Boulenger, 1894, Cat. Sn. Brit. Mus., vol. 2, p. 254; 1896, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 2, vol. 16, p. 653. 

 'Schmidt, 1923, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 49, p. 91. 

 •Chabanaud, 1916, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat., Paris, vol. 22, p. 372. 



• Boulenger, 1896, Cat. Sn. Brit. Mus. vol. 3, p. 641, records a male from Ugogo (Dodoma district) as 

 having Sc. 24, V. 194, C. 72. 



