84 CAPT. F. WALL ON THE [ Feb. 3, 
2. A Prodromus of the Snakes hitherto recorded from China, 
Japan, and the Loo Choo Islands; with some Notes. 
By Captain F. Watt, Indian Medical Service.t 
[Received December 15, 1902. ] 
Whilst attached to the China Expeditionary Forces from 
1900-1902, I had opportunities of examining the Snakes pre- 
served in the three Museums in China, and also others in private 
collections. My notes on these, together with those on specimens 
obtained myself, form the subject of this paper, which I have 
arranged so as to form a complete prodromus of the species 
hitherto recorded from the countries above specified. 
In spite of the large aggregate of specimens J examined, it is 
perhaps worthy of remark that I failed to discover one species 
new to science’, and this only serves to show how extensively and 
thoroughly this branch of natural history has been worked out. 
In the City Hall Museum in Hongkong, out of about one 
hundred specimens from the territory above mentioned, I found 
many misnamed and others unidentified. I was informed that 
during a typhoon some years previously a large case, containing 
specimens, was blown over and. the contents wrecked, Out of 
the débris labels were recovered as far as possible and replaced, 
but some were evidently incorrectly reattached and others were 
destroyed. This circumstance may render the accuracy of some 
of the records open to question. That this collection is far from 
representative is evidenced by the fact that during five and a half 
months’ residence in this Port I obtained six species which were 
not to be found in the Hongkong Museum. 
In the Museum in Shanghai I found about fifty specimens 
which were for the most part old, and concerning which there 
was practically no information regarding their habitat. 
In the Museum belonging to the Jesuit Fathers at Siccawei, 
near Shanghai, I examined some two or three hundred specimens, 
but these, again, furnished practically no record of their habitat ; 
however, the late Pére Heude informed me that they had all been 
collected in the Yangtse Valley, and he mentioned Ning-ko-foo 
(which I find is on the southern bank of the Yangtse River) as 
being the most northern limit. He could not define limits either 
to the south or west. 
As regards habitat, where I do not cite the authority, so far as 
the territory this makes reference to is concerned, it is to be under- 
stood that examples exist in the British Museum Collection at 
South Kensington. 
I have only made reference to points in these specimens which 
do not absolutely agree with the descriptions to be found im 
1 Communicated by G. A. BouLENGER, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S. 
2 The species referred to hereafter as Dipsadomorphus kraepelini, No. 65, which 
I had hoped to have the honour of describing for the first time, was recorded by 
Stejneger shortly after I began to prepare this paper . 
