204 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXII. 



occur in all the Reptilia, whose young are enveloped in a tough shell. Is 

 the festal a relic of some tooth which in other Reptilia has ceased to be 

 functional, and if so do any traces remain in any other representatives of 

 the class, or is it possibly a vestige of two anterior prsemaxillary teeth 

 fused together and surviving for the present purpose ? Major Wall has 

 shown that in Tropidonotus piscator it is '' bidentate"* which perhaps 

 lends some slight support to the latter view. 



On the other hand is it a lately evolved structure, and if so at what 

 period in the evolution of the Reptilia and from what source has it been 

 evolved ? 



There must be many among our members who, like myself, having been 

 for years in the jungle away from any reference libraries would welcome a 

 little enlightenment on the question and this must be my apology for 

 referring to the subject again. 



F. E. W. VENNING, Oapt. 

 Pyawbwb, 27111 November 1912. 



No. XXX.— CONGENITAL ABNORMALITY IN THE BONES OF 

 THE BULL FROG (RAN A TIQRINA). 



The bones reproduced in the above figure were obtained while pre- 

 paring a skeleton of the frog last year for the students of the Agricultural 



• Vol. XVIII, p. 504, B. N. H. S. J. 



