486 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
statement.— Apam J. Corriz, J. W. Kimper, M. A. Kiwper (Lans- 
down Grove Hotel, Bath). 
[We publish the foregoing as received. We are informed by Mr. 
Tegetmeier that the proprietors of the ‘ Field’ have for very many years 
offered a reward of £1, and for the last three years of £5, for a Viper seen 
to swallow its young and received dead with the young inside; but the 
reward has not yet been claimed. The young Vipers burst from the egg 
with all their powers perfect, and escape rapidly into the grass directly they 
are disturbed, so rapidly that the bystander concludes they must have dis- 
appeared down the mother’s throat. No case of Vipers swallowing young 
has ever been observed at the Zoological Gardens at Regent’s Park.— Ep.] 
AMPHIBIA. 
Abnormal Eyes of Hyla arborea and Bombinator igneus.—I recently 
purchased a small Tree Frog (Hyla arborea), and sent it toa friend who 
was interested in batrachians. A few days later he informed me that the 
Frog was blind in one eye. A strong light having been thrown into the 
eye, I carefully examined the interior of the diseased organ with a powerful 
lens. The iris was widely dilated, normal in colour. The whole of the 
interior of the eye was transparent like glass, and behind this was a greyish 
surface, showing no trace of blood-vessels. The affected eye was twice the 
size of the normal one, and the animal was continually closing the eyelid 
over it. ‘The increase in size of the eye was most marked in the portion 
nearer the ear. I have similarly examined a normal Tree Frog, but 
merely obtained an image of the light reflected from the anterior surface 
of the cornea, the interior of the eye appearing black with no transparency. 
The nature of the disease in the Frog’s eye isa puzzle to me. From a 
careful dissection of a Toad’s eye it would seem that the greyish appearance 
seen in the diseased eye was the normal retina, so that the anterior portion — 
of the eye seems to be at fault. The Frog is lively, and takes flies readily. — 
As a contrast to the above, I may mention a specimen of Bombinator igneus 
which I kept for some time, in which one eye was curiously small, 
much smaller than the other. I attributed this to arrest in the normal 
development of the eye.—Granam RensHaw (Sale Bridge House, Sale, 
Manchester). 1 
