360 Mr. G. A. Boulenger on new Typhlopide. 
their preparation for publication would be only a work of a 
few hours; but these notes are a very small fraction of the 
whole. I wonder that Mr. Butler did not write to me and 
ask for his notes, instead of for the first time intimating his 
dissatisfaction in this extraordinary manner. Since, how- 
ever, he prefers this mode of procedure, I will mention that 
I am returning his notes only a few hours after first seeing 
his paper. 
There is nothing in Mr. Butler’s notes of 1887 or in the 
few remarks he makes in the paper to which I am replying 
which tends to “ mystify” the subject. It has always been 
admitted that one animal may eat what another refuses. The 
effect which such colours and patterns as those of Zeuzera 
esculi would have upon an insectivorous animal has been 
abundantly shown in my paper (/. c. p. 236). Mr. Butler’s 
conclusions as to the larva of Stauropus fagi seem to me to 
be quite valueless in the absence of direct evidence, while the 
presumption is the other way. JInsect-eating animals cer- 
tainly keenly relish spiders, but they are nevertheless often 
afraid of spiders of a size such as S. fag? suggests. It is 
characteristic of the whole spirit of Mr. Butler’s paper that 
he should ridicule my extension of H. Miiller’s interpretation 
of the attitude assumed by S. fag? so far as it may be supposed 
to apply to birds—a supposition to which I did not even allude 
—and that he should omit to mention the actual proofs which 
I obtained that alarm is caused by its attitude in the case of 
other animals (marmoset and lizard). Those who are inter- 
ested in investigating a specimen of Mr. Butler’s method of 
controversy would do well to compare his remarks on the 
spider-like attitude of S. fag¢ with my experiments and con- 
clusions on the same subject (Trans. Ent. Soc. 1888, pp. 583— 
586). 
Oxford, 
Oct. 4, 1889. 
_ XLVILI.—Descriptions of new Typhlopide tn the British 
Museum. By G. A. BOULENGER. 
Helminthophis Petersit. 
Rostral half the width of the head, extending to between. 
the eyes, truncate posteriorly, and forming a broad suture with 
the frontal ; two superposed preoculars and a subocular ; eye 
