394 Zoological Society : — 



cies. During two years I was unsuccessful, and I began to think 

 at last that this Snake was only the immature form of some other 

 species, which supposition became a belief when some months ago 

 I found an egg containing as large a specimen of Furina textUis 

 as I had ever met with before. On further investigation I found 

 that the distinct bands and black spots of this Snake faded with the 

 growth of the individual, and apparently vanished altogether in old 

 specimens. As the egg and young in my possession are of a size 

 generally produced by Snakes from 3 to 4 feet in length, and as I 

 have a series of specimens in which the disappearance of the bands 

 and markings may be clearly traced, I do not hesitate to assert that 

 Pseudonaia textilis is only a young Snake. Inviting the scrutiny of 

 more able naturalists than myself to this fact, I beg to refer at the 

 same time to my collection forwarded to the International Exhi- 

 bition, specimens Nos. ^Q and 40, which I believe to be identical. 



I have since forwarded a full-grown adult Snake of this species to 

 Dr. Gunther, which I have stuffed, as in the dry specimens the re- 

 mains of the rings on the body may be better observed than when 

 preserved in spirits. I have been unable to find any description in 

 Dumeril and Bibron of the large Furina of which I suppose the F. 

 textilis to be the young ; and, not being in possession of the British 

 Museum Catalogue, I do not know whether this Snake has been de- 

 scribed at all. 



Note on the Deer of Formosa. By P. L. Sclater, M.A., 

 Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Society. 



In some remarks on the Japanese Deer received by the Society in 

 1860, which I made before the meeting of this Society in the month 

 of November of that year*, I gave some reasons for considering Cer- 

 vus sika of the * Fauna Japonica,' Cervus pseudaxis of the French 

 naturalists, and Dr. Gray's Rusa japonica as probably synonyms of 

 the same species. In a communication made to the Society in the 

 following year. Dr. Gray ultimately admits that his Rusa japonica is 

 probably the same as Cervus sika j " though it differs so much from the 

 figure and description of that animal in the * Fauna Japonica' ;"f and 

 I believe there is now little doubt upon this point. Mr. Westerman, 

 the Director of the Gardens of the Zoological Society of Amsterdam, 

 to whom we parted with a pair of these Japanese Deer in 1861, has 

 informed me that he was previously well acquainted with the species, 

 and that it is certainly identical with the type of Cervus sika in the 

 Ley den Museum. Since the arrival of the first example of this Deer 

 (the pair presented to the Society by Mr. Wilks, July 21, 1860), we 

 have received several others. In September 1861, a female arrived 

 from our Corresponding Member, Mr. Blyth of Calcutta, being one 

 of the examples he has commented upon in the * Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal' (xxx. p. 90) ; and in June of the same 

 year we purchased a pair of these animals, the male of which was 

 subsequently parted with to Mr. Westerman. On the 3 1 st of August, 



* Ann. & Mag. ser. 3. vol. vii. p. 142. f ^^^'^» vol. viii. p. 341. 



