FURTHER NOTES ON SNAKES FROM THE CHIN HILLS. 771 



tephrosoma (Bomb. N. H. Jourl., Vol. XVIII, p. 314). In Capt. Venning's 

 specimen I find the costal rows 28 anteriorly, and in the whole body 

 except before the vent for a short space where they are 26. The rostral 

 does not reach back as far as the eyes, and these organs are very 

 indistinct. The colour dorsally is dark brown, belly lighter with a series 

 of distant, irregularly spaced, white, ventral, median spots. I notice that 

 the prefrontal is nearly twice as long as the other superior shields. The 

 frontal is rather the smallest shield. The supraocular is rather broader 

 than the other shields. There are two enlarged temporals, and the 

 parietal touches one scale behind on the left side, two on the right. 

 The lateral breadth of the body is ^L that of the total length. I still 

 think that this form (tephrosoma) deserves to rank as a species very 

 closely allied to diardi. It is noteworthy that diardi is a very common 

 snake, and up till now no single specimen has been recorded with 28 

 scale rows. The specimen is further interesting in that it is gravid. It 

 contains now 5 (I think) eggs. Capt. Venning had extracted one, and I 

 extracted another, so the full complement appears to be 7. Capt. Venning 

 called my attention to the presence of a small embryo within the egg, and 

 I am able to confirm his observation. The egg I examined measured 

 17mm., in length, and 10mm. in breadth. On the vertebral aspect a 

 small chamber was discovered in the yolk just beneath the investing 

 membrane. This measured 5mm., in diameter and contained a small 

 embryo, the head, and eye, and a bulbous process (the heart ?) being 

 very distinctly visible, the body behind being spirally twisted. The whole 

 might have measured 1^ inches unravelled. The condition is exactly that 

 noted and figured by me in this Journal (Vol. xix, p. 784) with reference to 

 the eggs of the tree snake Dendralophis trislis and suggests the probability 

 that the eggs may be discharged as such. Further observations are 

 however necessary to negative the idea of a viviparous habit. 



F. WALL.] 

 Blythia reticulata. — Three specimens are perhaps noteworthy. 

 No. 55/10 was an immature specimen taken on 19th June under a 

 heap of stones on the rifle range (6,600 ft.), where also another 

 small one was seen but managed by its remarkable agility to 

 escape minus the tip of its tail. The specimen captured was 5-75 

 inches long (tail -7 inch) and was coloured similarly to all the 

 adult specimens seen here. On the other hand one taken last 

 year in April at Fort White was smaller in size (4-4 inches) and 

 was white beneath. These facts coupled with the undeveloped 

 state of the embryos in the next specimen which was taken in July 



