1903. ] SNAKES OF CHINA AND JAPAN, 99 
twelve young scattered around her. In spite of every endeavour, 
I failed to trace the author of this butchery. It is sad luek that 
such opportunities as these for observing habits rarely fall to the 
lot of those who specially seek them. Residents about Shanghai 
occasionally lose dogs under circumstances suggesting a poisonous 
bite, and I think these fatalities are frequently due to this little 
snake. One specimen I captured had the penis bifid on both sides, 
I kept young on two or three occasions, but could not find suitable 
food with which to tempt them, and finally resorted to feeding 
them with boluses of raw meat, a treatment they displayed their 
distaste for by repeatedly disgorging the morsels some time later. 
T observed that, when molested and excited, all my specimens 
vibrated the tail, but I could never get one actually to strike ; 
howeyer all the specimens I had alive were very small. Labials 
seven, the third only touching the eye; eight in one specimen on 
both sides, 
94. Lacnesis gervonii. Khasi Hills, Assam, Thibet; Upper 
Yangtse, China. 
95, LacnEsis MucrosquamaAtus. Naga Hills, Assam; Formosa. 
96. LACHESIS GRAMINEUS. South-eastern Asia, China, Hainan 
(Herz & City Hall Mus.), Hongkong, Formosa.—This is a very 
common snake in Hongkong, where I procured three specimens. 
There are also twelve in the City Hall Museum, obtained locally. 
In one of these the skin of the neck had been perforated and 
rent by the beak of a bird which it is seen in the act of devouring. 
The distension of the mouth and neck is enormous, so that the bird 
appears as if it were being thrust through the rent instead of into 
the gullet. There is only one specimen in the Shanghai Museum, 
and only one in the Siccawei Collection. The residents of Hong- 
kong call this the Bamboo-snake, which is a very good name for it 
since it is almost always to be found in the foliage of bamboo 
vegetation. I am told too that the Anglo-Indians in Assam have 
also given this name to the snake. 
Part I1.—List or JAPANESE AND Loo CuHoo JstANDS OPHIDIA. 
CoLUBRID&. 
1. Troprponotus VIBAKARI. Japan, Formosa, Manchuria.—I 
found one in the City Hall Museum from Nagasaki, and saw six 
others in Mr. Owston’s collection, all from Mount Fuji. Ventrals 
152 in one specimen. Subcaudals 80 in one specimen; second to 
fifth entire in one specimen. 
2. TROPIDONOTUS TIGRINUS. Siam, Cochin China, China, Hainan, 
Hongkong ?, Manchuria.—In my opinion this is the commonest 
snake in Japan. I frequently met with it, and on one occasion 
captured five in a couple of hours. It is called by the Japanese 
“yamakagashi,” “ uwabami,” “ orochi,” “ja,” all of which terms, I 
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