1873.] ' 111 



Notes on some species of Malayan Amphibia and Eeptilia, — 



ly De. F. Stoliczka. 



(Received 15th Feb. 1872 ; read 5th March, 1872.) 



[With plate XI.] 



It is nearly three years ago that I had the pleasure of submitting to 

 the Society a few notes on Indo-Malayan Reptiles and Amphibians, chiefly 

 collected by myself along the Burmese and Tenasserim coasts, about Penang 

 and on the Nicobar and Andaman islands. When visiting Penang in 1869, 1 

 received information of a tolerably extensive* collection of Reptiles, brought 

 together by a zealous Jesuit during a residence of about twenty years on the 

 island. The specimens were collected either on Penang itself or on the op- 

 posite coast of the Wellesley Province. A very large number had been cap- 

 tm*ed alive, and coloured drawings, taken from most of the live specimens, 

 had been prepared. The colouring appeared to me to have been faith- 

 fully copied, and this it was which particularly excited my interest in the col- 

 lection, because in many cases the colours of Reptiles fade most rapidly, as 

 soon as the specimens are placed in spirit ; in others the colouring changes 

 immediately after death, and again some alter even during life their colour, 

 as soon as they become conscious of their captivity. In any case the coloured 

 sketches from life seemed to me valuable and I, therefore, resolved to buy 

 the collection. 



As soon as the formal matters were arr'anged, the collection of tlie 

 specimens was transmitted to me, the drawings, however, were afterwards not 

 considered to form an essential part of it, and were handed over to some one 

 else, according to a wish of the deceased gentleman under whose supervision 

 they were executed. After a brief correspondence it did not appear to 

 me much use treating further about the subject. My interest in the 

 collection has, on that account naturally enough, partly diminished, and 

 having had other more pressing work to attend to, the specimens were 

 for more than two years left unnoticed. More recently my friend Mr. 

 Stahlknecht of Singapore visited Sumatra, and made for me a very nice 

 little collection of Reptiles, most of which were in a beautiful state of preser- 

 vation. This circumstance induced me to look over my old acquaintances, 

 and to prepare a critical list of all of them. In the old collection I only 

 found two new species, a Rana and a Swiotes, a specimen of the latter had 

 very recently been also obtained by Mr. J. Wood-Mason's collector at 

 Jahore, situated at the extreme south end of the Malayan Peninsula, north 

 of Singapore island. Mr. Stahlknecht's collection yielded a new Calamaria. 



* This refers to the number of specimens, but not to that of species, as I sub- 

 Bequently discovered. 



