EEPTILES 01" BKITISII BIIIMA. 



my own private collection, and have at various times been brought 

 together, mainly through the exertions of the late Major Berdmore 

 and mj'self, and a few others, whose names are recorded in my 

 ' Catalogue of Eeptiles in the Museum of the Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal' (now publishing in Calcutta). In 1855 I collected 

 largely in Tenasserim ; and the bulk of the collections was forwarded 

 to Calcutta ; whilst, duriug the past four years, I have been con- 

 fined to Pegu. Hence it comes to pass that I am personally 

 more thoroughly acquainted with the fauna of Pegu than with that 

 of the Southern Provinces, though, happily, Major Berdmore was 

 so energetic a collector in Martaban and Tenasserim, as to leave 

 little to be desired, so far as the efforts of a single individual, 

 not himself a naturalist, can go. It is, however, a source of much 

 regret to me, whilst penning this catalogue, that Birma can boast 

 of so few men possessing the energy and zeal of the above-named 

 gentleman ; for, with a few exceptions, the utmost apathy on scien- 

 tific subjects prevails among the European residents in Birma, 

 whether in civil, military, or mercantile employ. 



Touching the distribution of species, British Birma presents 

 an interesting field of inquiry, as it forms a sort of debateable 

 ground, wherein the Indian fauna proper meets and commingles 

 with that of the Malay peninsula. Thus, in Pegu, we have the 

 Bengal forms Dahoia Busselli, Fasserita inycterizans, Ptyas miico- 

 sus, Tropidonofics stolatus, Lycodon aulicus, &c., alongside of such 

 south-eastern forms as JSTaia tripiidians (without spectacles), 

 Trarjops prasinus, Plyas Jcorros, Xcnopdtis unicoJor, Ahlahcs mela- 

 nocephaJus * (?), &c., and, amongst lizards, Varonus dmcaina, Biopa 

 alhopnnctata, Ilcmidaciyhis maculatus, with Draco macitlatus, Tro- 

 pidopliorus Berdmorei, and Ttycliozoon liomaloceplialum. The 

 distribution, too, of the Testudinata of Birma is somewhat re- 

 markable. Many of the estuary species of Emydidae and Triony- 

 cidse are common to both Birma and Bengal, whilst others and the 

 known Testndinidce are confined to the province and the Malay 

 regions, with two remarkable exceptions — Manouria <??«ys, recorded 

 by Giinther, from the Murray Hiver, Australia, and Bmys trijuga, 

 which ranges from Java, through Pegu, to India and Ceylon, 

 (though unrecorded as yet in Bengal). Manouria, I should per- 

 haps add, is one of the species I have, as yet, not myself seen iu 

 Birma; but two specimens were forwarded by Lt.-Col. Phayre 



* Vide p. 49. 



