8288 



Reptiles, 



Occurrence of the Pomarine Skua in the Isle of Wight. — On the 22nd inst. I went 

 out with my gun, and had the pleasure of shooting a magnificent specimen of the 

 pomarine skua. It is a male in fine adult plumage. There were five of them together, 

 and I had great difficulty in getting a shot at them, as they were very shy. After 

 waiting a long time waiching their rapid flight this one singled itself from the rest, and 

 dashed much like a falcon in its swoop within a few yards of where I was concealed 

 waiting for them, and the next instant it fell to my gun. T believe this is only the 

 second instance of its occurrence in the Isle of Wight. The other is recorded in the 

 'Zoologist ' (Zool. 978). A specimen of the Manx shearwater was shot in August, by 

 Mr. G. Baird, near the Needles, and a second specimen was obtained many years ago 

 near Yarmouth (Zool. 978).— Henry Rogers, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, October 23, 

 1862. 



Coluber Icevis identical with C. dumfrisiensis. — Mr. Buckland's communication on 

 the birth of the six baby snakes is of great interest ; and I shall anxiously wait further 

 information as to the movements and food of the little strangers; but there is one fact 

 in the bibliography of British reptiles that seems to me of still greater interest, and 

 that is, that a supposed new snake was described a quarterof a century ago, as inhab- 

 iting Scotland, which agrees in its distinctive characters with Coronella austriaca. I 

 allude to the Coluber dumfrisiensis of Sowerby, which was captured near Dumfries 

 by Mr. J. W. Simmons, and described and figured in Sowerby's ' Miscellany,' p. iii. 

 t. iii. and again in Loudon's ' Magazine of Natural History,' ii. 438, and again de- 

 scribed in Bell's ' British Eeptiles,' at p. 60 of the second edition. The first point of 

 similarity I would observe is the smoothness of the scales ; all the authors in describing 

 C. dumfrisiensis say, "the scales are extremely simple, not carinated ; the word not 

 italicised, as in this quotation, proves that the new species could not be referred to the 

 adder or the common snake, the scales in both these species being distinctly keeled. 

 Mr. Bell is inclined to believe that the supposed novelty was a specimen of the common 

 snake, and he seeks to overcome the difficulty of the smooth scales by suggesting that 

 it was " very young." This appears to me most unsatisfactory, since I know of no 

 reptilian scale which changes its form and structure as the animal advances in age. I 

 have also to notice the number of ventral scales or scuta, which in the four supposed species 

 stands thus:— Coluber natrix (common snake) 170, C. austriaca or laevis (lizard snake) 160 

 — 164, C. dumfrisiensis (Dumfries snake) 162, Pelias berus (the adder) 140 — 150. Thus 

 the Dumfries snake and our supposed novelty correspond exactly in the number of 

 ventral scuta. These two characters — the absence of a keel on the dorsal scuta, and 

 the agreement in number of the ventral scuta — seem to go far to establish the positive 

 identity between the two species which have been galled dumfrisiensis and austriaca, 

 after the localities in which they have been accidentally observed. Some doubt may 

 exist as to which specific name should be adopted ; but this difficulty is in some mea- 

 sure removed by Dumeril and Bibron, in their ' Erpetologie Generale,' vol. vii. p. 610, 

 and also Schinz, in bis ' Verzeichniss,' vol. ii. p. 45, having adopted the appropriate 

 and descriptive name of" laevis.'' On the subject of names I may also remark that I 

 see no reason for changing the old familiar generic name of Coluber for the modern, 

 and, as I think, inappropriate name of Coronella ; and I would suggest that hereafter 

 all the three later names be dropped and forgotten, and the old and appropriate name 



