1903.] AXATOMY OF THE HAMADRYAD SXAKE. 321 



bile-ducts emerge from the rete and pursue a long course (long 

 as compared with the plexus region) through the pancreas to 

 the intestine. Arrived at the intestine they do not debouch 

 directly into its lumen by five orifices, but open sej^arately, or 

 nearly so, into a thick-waUed diverticulum of the gut, which itself 

 communicates with the gut by an orifice not wider than one of 

 the separate bile-ducts. I have noticed a. similar diverticulum, 

 which receives both cystic and hepatic ducts, in Westerman's 

 Cassowary. As compared with the Cobra*, which I have also 

 examined, the bile-ducts of Opliiophagus are more numerous and 

 more complex in their intercommunications. The hepatic duct, 

 for example, is single, though it communicates with more than 

 one of the cystic ducts. The gall-bladder itself has not so long a 

 common cystic duct as that which characterises OpMophagus. I 

 do not think that a more minute description of the cystic network 

 in the two types is useful at present ; but I may observe that 

 sketches of the gall-bladder published by other anatomists, and a 

 few made by myself, indicate that the general plan of the cystic 

 rete is not without use in distinguishing and comparing various 

 genera of serpents. 



Again, the Cobra has a testis proportionately longer than that 

 of the Hamadryad and differently situated. The anterior testis is 



2 1 inches long and its anterior border is 11 inches from the liver ; 

 its posterior border is a long way in front of the kidney. 



In OpMophagiis hungarus the anterior testis abuts so closely 

 upon the anteiior kidney that the two organs are only just 

 disconnected ; while the spermatic artery, influenced, so to speak, 

 by this near approximation, sends a branch to the kidney before 

 entering the testis. The anterior end of the testis is, moreover, 



22 inches away from the end of the liver, and it measures only 

 1| inches in length though very much plumper than the corre- 

 sponding testis of the Cobra. In estimating these facts it must be 

 boi-ne in mind that the Hamadryad measured 93 inches from tip 

 of snout to vent, and the Cobra 51 inches. 



More possibly, but still to my mind not certainly, associated 

 with difference of size is the fact that the Hamadryad possesses 

 six gastric arteries as against three iii the case of the Cobra. I 

 recognise — it may be explained — as gastric arteries those vessels, 

 which arise from the aorta after the posterior end of the livei- and 

 supply the stomach only. 



In the Ophidia generally there are two Carotid arteries, both of 

 which spring near together from the right aortic arch. The left- 

 hand artery is, I believe, always the largest, and extends right up 

 the neck as far as the head, giving off branches along its course 

 to the gullet and windpipe. The second and smaller of the twa 

 Carotids is, as a rule, of much smaller calibre, and in the distribu- 

 tion of its twigs is hardly more than a thjrroidean arteiy. In 

 Ophiophagus hungarus these conditions obtain, and the artery in 

 question does not extend up the neck very much beyond the 

 * Bronn's 'Tliierrcich,' Rept., Bd. \\. pt. iii. ]>T. cxx.v. iigr. 2. 



Proc. Zool. 8oc.— 1903. Vol. II. No. XXI. 21 



