— 145 — 



" The latter, as you yourself pointed out, was so incomplete 

 and fragmentory, that Dr. Hooker is desirous of having it 

 completed by Mr. Home, as he quite concurs in its excep- 

 tional character. 



" The JPalmiste Gargonlette he has at last satisfied himself is 

 the Hyoi^liorhe amaricaulis of Van Martins and others, the 

 habitat of which had never been previously clearly ascertained. 



" AVith respect to the Fauna, I spent a morning lately with 

 Dr. GuQther at the British Museum and got much ioformation. 

 He refers all the snakes we collected to one and the same spe- 

 cies (the difterence of size and colouring being due to age and 

 sex) as it was famished forty or fifty years ago from a head 

 in the Piiris Museum, but of which no other or perfect speci- 

 men was known. Casarea Dussumieril. Dr. Griintlier will 

 soon contribute a complete description of it to the Zoological 

 Society, and it will bs figured iu the Proceedings. 



" The only other snake sent was a small dried one given me 

 by Col. Pike, and which I must have been mistaking in sup- 

 posing he stated to have come from Eouud Island, as it proves 

 to be Tropidonatus Seychellensis, which is peculiar to the Sey- 

 chelles. The Lizards are also reduced by Dr. Gunther to two, 

 all the specimens marked 5 or 6 6a 6b 6c being difterent ages 

 and sexes of Scincus Telfairi, which was first described from 

 Madagascar under the name of Leiolopisma Bellia. 



" We compared the latter with the Round Island specimens 

 and found tliem identical. The little lizard both in spirits and 

 preserved by Col. Pike is called Gongylus Bojerii. It had been 

 previously sent home by Mr. JSTewton from Eound Island. 



" Though the number of Eound Island reptiles is thus much 

 more limited than I supposed, two curious features still re- 

 main. It has a genus of snakes of which no other species is 

 known and whose nearest congener Dr. Gunther considers, is 

 only found in Loyalty Island in the South sea, and its ordina- 

 ry lizard is peculiar to its own shores and to distant Madagas- 

 car, and not in existence either in Mauritius or Bourbon 

 close-by. 



" Excuse this hurried sketch which ia written under the 

 greatest difficulties, as I start to-morrow morning for the Cape 

 and have much to do. 



