14 



MR V. E. BEDDARD ON THE 



[Jan. 16, 



be presumed, that they had been originally split, but that the two 

 halves had come together in the course of the gradual obliteration 

 of the area of the navel. Both specimens were i^ractically identical 

 in the disposition of the scales. It is remarkable, however, that 

 in an individual of the same brood measuring 22| inches long, 

 and older by three weeks (it died on Oct. 17), the median furrowing 

 of the ventral scales was continued for a long way behind the 

 navel (text-fig. 3). The actual area of the navel, much narrower 

 in this specimen, corresponds to seven scales. This older individual 

 is a male, as shown by the shape of the cloacal claws ; I did not 

 dissect it. 



Text -fig. 3. 



. KS. 



Region of umbilicus in a young Anaconda {Eunectes notceus). 

 Lettering as in text-fig. 2. 



Current treatises on Zoology have largely ignored the fact that 

 among the Boidfe the rudiments of bind limbs oflfer sexual 

 characters which are unmistakable. They are obvious, for 

 instance, in the genus Uryx, and in the species with which I am 

 concerned, viz. Eunectes notceus. That this fact is obviously not 

 generally known is perhaps due to Dumeril and Bibron. These 



