Dr. A. Giinther on a West- African Genus of Snakes. 223 



each other, eating, drinking, and roosting separately ; and although 

 an occasional small voice was heard from the young birds, it did not 

 appear to indicate or excite any notice among them. These young 

 birds grow amazingly — so rapidly, that at the age of three months 

 they can scarcely be distinguished from the adult birds. 



The foregoing observations lead me to believe that two or three 

 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 oesophagus, 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 beUeve 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. 



On a West-African Genus of Snakes (Meizodon). 

 By Dr. Albert 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 alUed to it, and from which 

 it becomes evident that all three are to be removed from the family 

 of Colubridce to that of Coronellidce. In order to fix their position 



* Hamburg. Abhandl. Gebiet Naturw. 1856, p. 112. 



