LITTLE-KKOWN OPISTHOaLTPHOTJS SNAKES. 421 



widely open groove {vide fig. 4), and on tlieir posterior face 

 there is developed a cutting-edge. 



The mandibular teeth are 16 in number, very small and 

 upright, and set in a compact series with a slight increase in size 

 anteriorly. 



Now with regard to the second snake, viz. : — 



? Aglyphous variety of Erythrolamprus, Griinther. 

 [? Liophis, Boulenger.] 



The buccal glands of this snake (cf. fig. 5) are precisely 

 identical with those of Erythrolamprus, excepting that the 

 inferior labial gland (fig. 5, g.l.i.) is not quite so extensive. 



The mandibular teeth {cf. fig. 7) are precisely like those of 

 Erythrolamprus, Yerj small, closely set, and 17 in number. 



There are the same number of maxillary teeth, viz., 12. The 

 10 anterior teeth are identical in form and disposition with the 

 corresponding ones in Erythrolamprus, and the 2 posterior 

 enlarged teeth only differ from the corresponding teeth in the 

 latter genus in the entire absence of a groove {vide fig. 8). In 

 fact, this is the only character which in any way distinguishes 

 the buccal apparatus of these two snakes. 



Hence this animal is nothing more nor less than an aglyphous 

 variety of Erythrolamprus, i. e. of an " opisthoglyphous " snake. 



This snake is famous for having bitten Mr. Quelch, the Curator 

 of the G-eorgetown Museum, and for having led him* to a belief 

 in " the venomous action of the secretion of harmless snakes." 

 The facts concerning it herein dealt with have a special interest 

 in their bearings on recent classification f, and in consideration 

 of the experimental work of Phisalix and Bertrand % and others, 

 of the recent discovery of a Burmese snake § having the loreal 

 shield of a supposed harmless Colubrine and the poison appa- 

 ratus of a viper, and, last but not least, of the existence of 

 an individual of Distira cyanocincta with grooved mandibular 

 teeth II . 



* J. J. Quelch, ' Venom in Harmless Suakes,' Zool. (3) xvii. 1893, p. 30. 

 t Cf. Boulenger, ' Fauna of British India — Kept, and Batrachia,' p. 277. 

 \ Cf. especially Phisalix and Bertrand, Compt. Rend. torn. 118, p. 76. 

 § Azemiops Fe(B, Boulenger, P. Z. S. 1888, p. 266. 

 II Cf P. Z. S. 1890, p. 618. 

 LINN. JOURN. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. XXV. 35 



