142 MR. F. K. BEDDARD ON THE ANATOMY []MaV. 3, 



with the cessntion of the iutrapuhiionavy bronchus *. It is first 

 visible at some little distance beyond tliis point and extends back 

 only for an inch or so. In comparing the larger lung in these 

 two examples of Coralliis cookii, another important difference will 

 be apparent from the figures. The larger individual measured 

 71 inches, it will be remembered, from snout to cloacal orifice, 

 the smaller 65 inches. The difference ia length between these 

 sei'pents is not therefore very large ; one might fairly speak of 

 them as being about the same size. It will, however, be noted 

 from the accompanying figui'es, which are drawn to the same 

 scale, that the lung of one of the examples is very much 

 larger than that of the other, the difference being much more 

 pronounced than would perhaps be expected in two snakes so 

 nearly of the same length. It would, I should think, be imagined 

 by anyone examining the drawings referred to, that one snake 

 was half the size of the other. One would hardly expect to find 

 any difference in the size of the lungs in the two individuals ; 

 and yet there is the diflference described and figured. As I have 

 contrasted the lungs not only in these two individuals but in two 

 others, F and G, measuring respectively 64 and 53 inches, and 

 which both possess small lungs like those of specimen E, I can 

 venture to di'aw the conclusion that the lungs do certainly 

 vary considerably in capacity within the limits of this single 

 species. Furthermore, the tract of bronchus which lies within 

 the lung is by no means equal in the two specimens (D and E). 

 In the one with the smaller lung there were, so far as I could 

 count, 16 bronchial semirings belonging to the intrapulmonary 

 bronchus, and the length of the intrapulmonary bronchus was 

 17 mm. In the snake which had the larger lung there were 

 certainly three or four more semirings, and these rings wei-e 

 distinctly naii'ower than in the other specimen, where their 

 breadth from side to side was cleai-ly greatei-. The intra- 

 pulmonary bronchus of the larger specimen measured 31 mm. 

 In specimens F and G the intrapulmonary bronchus measured 

 respectively 11 and 10 mm. In specimen B, the only other one 

 of those in which I identified the presence of a seam at or near 

 the end of the intrapulmonary bronchus, I have a note that 

 the intrapulmonary bronchus is at least 25 mm. long. There 

 is thus a considerable variability also in the intrapulmonary 

 bronchus ; but it will be obsei-ved that the variations in the lung 

 tend to arrange themselves into two series. In the one the 

 intrapulmonary bronchus is long and a seam is present ; in the 

 other the bronchus in the same i-egion is short and there is 

 no seam. These facts seem to point to two stages in the 

 disappearance of the inti-apulmonary bronchus. 



§ Arterial System. 



The aiterial system, so far as I have examined it, also shows 



* I find in a iiewlv born JEunectes nottFus a similiir gap between the end of the 

 bvoiiclms and the beginnhig- of the seam. 



