210 MAJOR F. WALL, I.M.S., O.M.Z.S. 



all of which appeared to me to be the young of the species labelled in the British 

 Museum brugmansii (Boie). Upon examining the posterior maxillary teeth I could 

 discern grooves in them. The one important difference between the two supposed 

 species judging from the descriptions of the two in Mr. Boulenger's Catalogue was 

 therefore abolished. The other apparent differences affect the supralabials and the 

 ventrals. Though Mr. Boulenger's description of spiralis gives the supralabials as 

 ' ' six or seven," in all the specimens so labelled in the British Museum they are seven 

 except in one specimen on one side only where they are six. It is to be noted, too, 

 that in four of the twelve specimens labelled brugmansii in the same institution, there 

 are six supralabials on one or both sides and seven in the rest. As regards ventrals 

 the same authority gives the range for spiralis 270 to 334, that for brugmansii 300 to 

 354. The overlapping is great, and the available species meagre in the case of 

 spiralis and not very numerous in the case of brugmansii. I would point out that 

 four of the five specimens of spiralis are so alike in size and general appearance as to 

 leave one with the conviction that they are hatchlings of the same brood, an idea 

 supported by the fact that they are all preserved in the same bottle, and presented 

 by the same donor. A careful examination of the available specimens of the two 

 supposed species side by side strengthened my conviction, for I failed to discover any 

 difference between them. The slight difference apparent in the number of ventrals 

 entirely disappears within the range given me by the large series of specimens I have 

 examined. 



The vertebral spots which occur between the annuli by no means form a complete 

 series in some of the specimens of spiralis ; and it is to be specially remarked that a 

 very good series of these spots occurs n Beddome's specimen labelled brugmansii from 

 Malabar, and there is at least one pronounced vertebral spot in one of Henderson's 

 specimens. I think the most that can be conceded to the two forms is the rank of 

 colour varieties retaining for the species the name spiralis which has precedence. My 

 figure (19) is from a specimen of mine from Pegu now in the Bombay Society's collec- 

 tion referred to by Evans and me as Distira robusta in the Bombay Journal, Vol. xiii, 

 p 615. The scales in the neck are 27, midbody 34, posteriorly 34. The ventrals are 

 320. 



brugmansii (Boie).— Of the twelve specimens so named in the British Museum, 

 only nine appear to me to be identical, and should, I think, be included under the 

 older specific title spiralis with the five small specimens already so described by 

 Mr. Boulenger. This species I propose, for the present, to consider distinct as above 

 constituted, but it is so extremely closely allied to the forms cyanocincta (Daudin) and 

 lapemoides (Gray) that I cannot escape the conviction that the three will eventually be 

 united. Certain specimens, indeed, can be definitely referred to one or other of these 

 three forms by the possession of certain groups of characters which seem to mark 

 very definite specific differences. But, on the other hand, many specimens present 

 these same characters in varying combinations of such extreme confusion that it is 

 impossible to place them with certainty with either of the three species, to all of 

 which they show almost equal affinity. I am strongly of opinion that these specimens 



