-|_g SNAKES OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



Catanduanes. The fauna of the interior of Mindoro is prac- 

 tically unknown, as are also the faunas of high mountains 

 everywhere in the Islands. Undoubtedly many new species and 

 subspecies await discovery. . 



Species that occur in various islands may show variations 

 which in many cases are small but constant. Thus it is fre- 

 quently possible to state the locality from which a specimen comes 

 by mere examination. Such variations may consist of a higher 

 or a lower average of ventrals or subcaudals; a difference m 

 marking or color; or in the proportions or the relations of the 

 various head scales. Undoubtedly larger collections will permit 

 the naming of numerous subspecies. Not infrequently we find 

 that the variations in various species belonging to different 

 genera, or even families and orders, may have the same trend; 

 that is, there may be an increase or a reduction in the number 

 of ventrals, or of the scale rows, or of loreals, or there may be 

 curious anomalies in scale formation. 



This is of course to be expected, since the same environmental 

 conditions of food, temperature, rainfall, elevation, nature of soil, 

 etc., might easily bring about related changes in the fauna of a 

 particular locality. Certainly a study of these interrelated va- 

 riations on various islands would do much to solve, beyond 

 question, the part environment plays in the bringing about of a 

 new species, which in my own opinion is certainly no small one. 



HISTORICAL 



Some of the earliest writers on the Philippines have left rec- 

 ords of snakes — records which are for the most part native 

 stories or superstitions, but at all events interesting. 



Antonio de Morga * writes in 1609 : 



The forests and settlements have many serpents, of various colora, 

 which are generally larger than those of Castilla. Some have been seen 

 in the forests of unusual size, and wonderful to behold. The most harm- 

 ful are certain slender snakes, of less than one vara in length, which dart 

 down upon passersby from the trees (where they generally hang) , and 

 sting them; their venom is so powerful that within twenty-four hours the 

 person dies raving. 



The large snakes are doubtless Python reticulatus ; the slender 

 snakes might refer to any or all of several species. 

 Diego de Bobadilla t writes in about 1640 : 



* Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, by Antonio de Morga, Mexico, 1609. 

 Translated by Blair and Robertson, The Philippine Islands 1493-1898. 

 Cleveland, The Arthur H. Clark Co. 16 (1904) 93. 



-|- From Relation of the Filipinas Islands, by Diego de Bobadilla, S. J., 

 1640; in Blair and Robertson, op. cit. 29 (1905) 301. 



