Loll go. -H^ 



I omitted to state, in regard to the specimen of the Yellow Snake 

 which had recently shed its skin, that it has a much smaller proportion ot 

 the dark blue scales on the middle and posterior portions of its body than 

 any others I have met with. Mr. Bell may perhaps ascertain whether 

 this variation be accidental, or whether it should be ascribed to a differ- 

 ence of age or of sex. I shall also mention, on the authority of some 

 planters of credit, that a number of Yellow Snakes, as 10 or 12, are 

 not unfrequently met with in the woody parts of the Island with their tails 

 twisted together, but the rest of their bodies free. This chiefly occurs 

 about April and Miy, at their breeding season as is supposed: when 

 thus surprised, they will raise their tails and hiss, and it takes them some 

 time before they c?n unwind themselves and separate ; so that any active 

 person armed miaht then easily decapitate or destroy them. It seems 

 not improbable that the sight of similarly convoluted Snakes gave rise to 

 the old fable of the Lernean Hydra; and the feat of Hercules may have 

 been merely that of a man, who, meeting with such a knot of Serpents, 

 had the wit to assail them in their entangled state. 



In the cask there is another sample of our Black Snake, which is some 

 inches longer than the individual sent to you last year : pupil round, and 

 with the iris deep black and shining. 



I now come to the Mollnsca class; and along with a second sample of 

 the Loligo forwarded last year, which has been put up entire, with its 

 ink bladder undisturbed, and which I believe to be the species alluded to 

 by Pere Nicholson at p. 344 of his Histoire Naturelle de St. Domingue, 

 you will find in the cask a large specimen that claims, I think, to be a 

 new species, and distinct from Loligo sagittata. My reason for this is, 

 that all the figures I have seen of the wings of the latter agree with 

 Lamarck's character, " le bord superieur" (anterieur would have been 

 better) " de ces ailes est perpendiculaire a I'axe du corps, et ne s'insere 

 " pas de biais, comme dans le Calmar commun." Animaux sans vert., 

 t. 7, p. 663. Now in the present species the anterior border is far from 

 being perpendicular, and as far from being rhomboid ; it is strictly cor- 

 date *. I regret that its viscera had been taken out previously to my 



• I have just seen No. 1 of Guerin's icouographicof Cuvier's Regrie Animal 

 Vol. V. EE 2 



