Dr. A. Giinther on new Species of Snakes. 13 



conclusion, the muddy ground on which the horse-mussels 

 thrive in Bressay Sound and in the Voes on the west coast of 

 Shetland. The agglomerated masses of mussels, tangle-roots, 

 stones, and odoriferous mud teem with marine life. Even 

 where the margin of the sea is rendered perfectly turbid from 

 mud (and this, too, calcareous), as at White-Cliff Bay, in the 

 Isle of Wight, marine animals are abundant between tide- 

 marks. 



There is doubtless some reason why animals were not found 

 by Dr. Carpenter in the dredgings referred to ; but it is, on the 

 whole, unlikely that such barrenness was due to the muddy 

 condition of the water per se. Whether his alternative re- 

 straining condition, viz. " the stagnation produced hy the al- 

 most entire absence of vertical circulation,^^ be founded on a 

 more secure basis, must remain, as he adds, a matter of future 

 inquiry. 



II. — Seventh Account of new Species of Snakes in the Col- 

 lection of the British Museum. By Albert GiJNTHER, 

 M.A., M.D., Ph.D., F.H.S. 



[Plates III., IV., v., & VI.] 



The following species of Ophidians have been added to the 

 collection of the British Museum since the publication of the 

 last paper on the same subject in this Journal (June 1868, i. 

 pp. 413-429). The total number of species in that collection 

 amounts now to 920, and that of the typical specimens to 366. 

 In the following lists a part of the species are marked with an 

 asterisk (*) ; of these, as well as of a few others, I have added 

 descriptions or short remarks. 



I. List of Species which were formerly desiderata. 



Typhlops travancoricus, Bedd. Travaneore. Capt. Beddome. 



Typhlops striolatus, Pirs. Khassya. T. C. Jerdon, Esq. 



Typhlops exiguus, Jan. Belgaum. Dr. Leith. 



Plectrurus sanguineus, Bedd. Anamallays. Capt. Beddome. 



Rhinophis punctatus. Mull. Ceylon. T. H. K. Thwaites, Esq. 



Adelphicos quadrivirgatum, Jan. Java, M. Boucard. 



Ablabes reticulatus, Jerdon. Khassya. T. C. Jerdon, Esq. 



Cyclophis monticola, Jerdon. Khassya. T. C. Jerdon, Esq. 



Colophrys rhodogaster, Cope. Rio Chisoy. 0. Salvin, Esq. 



Simotes albocinctus, Cant. E. I. archipelago. Dr. van Lidth de 

 Jeude. 



Coronella (Liopeltis) sagittifera, Jan. Tucuman, Mendoza. Pur- 

 chased. 



