10 tHE ZOOLOGIST. 



We must reserve for another occasion some remarks on 

 variation, measurements, and weight; and on the much -vexed 

 question of the period of gestation, and the season of repro- 

 duction. 



(To be continued.) 



ON THE VARIATIONS OF THE SMOOTH SNAKE, 

 CORONELLA A U ST MAC A. 



By G. A. Boulenger. 



The first record of the Smooth Snake, Coroneila austriaca, 

 Laur. (C. Icevis, Lacep.), as a British species, was published by 

 the late Dr. J. E. Gray in this Journal in 1859 (p. 6730), from a 

 specimen obtained at Bournemouth, and presented to the British 

 Museum by the late Lord Arthur Russell. In the same volume 

 the late Mr. F. Bond (p. 6787) informed the readers of ' The 

 Zoologist' that he had, some years previously, discovered the 

 snake near Ringwood.* There is yet an earlier claim to its 

 discovery in Britain, which must, however, be dismissed as based 

 on an error. A small snake figured by Sowerby (Brit. Miscell. 

 pi. iii. 1804) as Coluber dumfrisiensis, and stated to have been 

 caught by a Mr. Simmons near Dumfries, has been regarded as 

 belonging to this species, and the name C. dumfrisiensis appears 

 in most of the recent synonymies of Coroneila austriaca. The 

 specimen has not been preserved, but I am fully convinced that 

 Sowerby's figure is taken from a young bleached specimen of 

 Coroneila doliata, L., a North American species, f 



Since 1859 numerous instances of the occurrence of Coroneila 

 austriaca in Hampshire and Dorsetshire have been recorded in 

 4 The Zoologist' and 'The Field.' The specimen obtained by 

 Lord Arthur Russell has been figured in Cooke's * Our Reptiles,' 

 pi. iv., and another figure, accompanied by a most interesting 



* The Rev. 0. P. Cambridge, who accompanied Mr. Bond on that occasion, 

 kindly informs me that the exact spot where the first specimen was caught 

 is near the St. Leonard's public-house, Eingwood Heath, just within the 

 borders of Hampshire. 



| Coluber tetragonus, Latreille, introduced by Fatio in the synonymy of 

 Coroneila austriaca, I regard as identical with the South African Homa- 

 loeoma lutrix. 



