1903.] ox THE ANATOMY OF THE HAMADRYAD SXAKE. 319 



There is not an Indian vernacular, aiicient or modern, Dravidian 

 or Aryan, without its own name for the tiger. It is interesting 

 to note that in South India there are vernaculars of quite indi- 

 genous origin that owe no part of theu^ vocabulary to Sanskrit, 

 and which, on that account, are sup|)osed to be more ancient than 

 Sanskrit. In these there are many synonyms for the tiger, and 

 these enter frequently into the composition of the names of South- 

 Indian villages. Villages bearing the names " Tiger-town," 

 " Tiger- village," " Small Tiger-town," and so forth are quite 

 common. 



I shall add no moi'e, as the discussion, if pursued further in 

 this direction, would lose its zoological interest and become 

 purely etymological. But I shaU be pleased to give any zoologist 

 more detailed information. I am not competent to say if the 

 question of the original home of the tiger, which is one of zoo- 

 geography and palfeozoology, can be made to rest on a foundation 

 of philology. 1 should like, however, to elicit the opinions of 

 Mr. Lydekker and Dr. Blanford, whose labours have made them 

 competent judges. 



2. On the Trachea, Lunc^s, and other Points in the Anatomy 

 of the Hamadryad Snake (Ophiophagus bun^arus). By 

 Frank E. Beddard, M.A., F.R.S., Prosector to the 

 Society. 



[Keceived November 3, 1903.] 



(Text-figures 36-40.) 



Although some recent systematists * include the Hamadryad 

 within the same genus (JVaia) as the Hooded Cobra and its 

 immedia,te allies, there are nevertheless a number of anatomical 

 features in which the Hamadryad differs from JVaia tripudians, 

 and which, therefore, tend to justify its earlier separation as a 

 distinct generic type. It differs, for example, in the form of the 

 liver. In Ophiophagus, as in other Snakes, the liver has two 

 distinct though closely-adjacent lobes, which are divided by the 

 vena cava posterior, and of which each is lodged in a separate 

 coelomic compartment t. These lobes are, however, quite unequal 

 in size. The left-hand lobe measures 16 inches in length, the 

 larger right-hand lobe 19 inches. The latter, however, extends 

 for 7 1 inches beyond the termination of the former, but it begins 

 4| inches after it. The inequality in size between the lobes 

 is thus accentuated by their position with reference to each 

 other. In the Cobra (lYaia tripudians) precisely the reverse con- 

 ditions obtain. The left lobe (that nearest to the stomach, when 

 the animal is opened and viewed from the ventral surface) is 



* E.ff. Boulenger, Cat. Snakes B. M. vol. iii. 1896, p. 386. 



t Butler, " On the Subdivision of the Bodj--cavity in Snakes,' P. Z. S. 1892> 

 p. 477. 



