134 [No. 2, 



Observations on some Indian and Malayan Amphibia and Rep- 

 tilia, — by Db. F. Stoliczka, Paleontologist of the Geol. 

 Survey of India ; Hon. Secretary, Asiat. Soc. Bengal. 



(With plates IX— XII.) 

 [Read and received 6th April, 1870.] 



The materials upon which the notes, recorded in the present com- 

 munication are based, have been derived from various sources. 

 By far the greater number of the specimens noticed had been 

 collected on my last year's trip along the Burmese and Malayan 

 coast, at Penang and near Singapore, as well as on the Nicobar and 

 Andaman islands. Only a few specimens were received through 

 a friend from Java, and from Upper Burma, but some of the sj^ecies 

 from these countries are of great interest, as I shall have occasion to 

 notice further on. 



As regards the Indian fauna proper, I have little to say. Dr. 

 Day furnished me with some materials which confirm the dis- 

 tinctness of the two species of Enhydrina figured by Russell, 

 namely, his Hoogli-pattee and Valahadyen. My collectors have also 

 procured in the Sutlej and Kulu valleys, and in the neighbourhood 

 of Simla, some species which I did not wish to omit, because 

 doubts had been expressed against the correct determination of 

 some of them. I particularly allude to such species as B 1 y t h ' s 

 Platyceps fasciatus, which is a Compsosoma, Dipsas multifasciata, 

 Blyth, Comjjsosoma Hodgsoni, G until., Tropidonotus platyceps, 

 B 1 y t h, with which Steindachner's Zamenis Himalayanus is 

 identical, and to a few others. There is at present less occasion to 

 remark much on the fauna of India proper, as it will shortly be 

 published in detail by Dr. T. 0. J e r d o n in his forthcoming work 

 the u Reptiles of India." 



However, the Amphibia and Reptilia of the Andamans and 

 Nicobars had a special interest for me, because the fauna of 

 these islands was as yet less known than that of other parts of 

 India and Burma, and not only promised to yield some novelties, 

 and to elicit the geographical distribution of several Malayan forms, 

 but upon examination of some type specimens in our Museum, 



