244 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



(Conoccphalus striatulus, Dum. and Bibr.), the Chained Snake 

 (Pituophis catenifer, Baird and Girard), the Triangle (Coluber 

 eximius, Storer), Graham's (Tropidonotus grahamii, Baird and 

 Girard) and Catesby's (Heterodon catesh/i, Gray) Snakes, the 

 Punctured Snake (Ablabes punctatus, Dum. and Bibr.) of Canada, 

 the Hog-nosed Snake (Heterodon platy rhinos, Baird and Girard), 

 the Texan Grass-snakes (Cyclopias vernalis and <e stir us, Giinther), 

 and the Kibbon Snake of the Rocky Mountains (Tropidonotus 

 saurita, Schlegel), are rather more delicate, but not uncommon. 



The Cape of Good Hope also sends us a few of this class ; a 

 little more exigent of sunny situations, it may be, but still 

 calculated for reception into our canvas-covered frame. Such 

 are the Black Snake (Boodon inf emails , Dum. and Bibr.), of that 

 district, the Cape Snake (Boodon lineatus, Dum. and Bibr., a 

 Constrictor), the Smooth-bellied Snake (Homalosoma lutrix, Dum. 

 and Bibr.), Coronella carta (Smith), Ablabes ru/ulus (Dum. and 

 Bibr.), Lamprophis aurora (Fitzinger), the Many-spotted Snake 

 (Coronella multimaeuhita, Gunther), the Cross-necked (Psammophis 

 crucifer, Boie) and Hissing (Psammophis sibilans, Seba) Sand- 

 snakes, and the Tigrine Snake (Psammophjjlax rhombeatus, Fitz- 

 inger) — not to be confounded with Tropidonotus tigrinus, a 

 Japanese snake, one or two examples of which have reached this 

 country alive ; it closely resembles our Common Snake, with a 

 small admixture of red in the colouring. The extraordinary 

 Bachiodon, a snake whose teeth are in its stomach, is exception- 

 ally tolerant of cold, but is rarely found. 



There are many other serpents in different parts of the world 

 which would be equally suitable, but unfortunately the distance 

 which intervenes between their habitat and these shores makes 

 the arrival of living specimens a matter of similar infrequeney 

 to that of angels' visits. We have already noticed this difficulty 

 with the snakes of the antipodes. The Tigrine Snake of Japan, 

 mentioned above, would in all probability prove capable even of 

 naturalisation here. One of the commonest snakes in the 

 compos of the River Plate — the climate of which would certainly 

 adapt its ophidians for transference to our own — is Coronella 

 anomala, a reptile not unlike our Smooth Snake in habit, but 

 larger and much more gaily decorated ; yet until quite recently 

 the British Museum contained but one solitary specimen (and 

 that a mutilated one), while not a single individual has yet been 



