496 
A SNAKE OE EXTREME RARITY 
1918, he was placed in a big bottle three-quarters full of mud 
with a little water on the surface ; a cloth was hung so as 
to act as a syphon to draw off the surface water, and within 
a few days the fish had ‘ gone to ground.’ 
A few days before our Annual Meeting of 1919 the bottle, 
now containing the driest of mud, was filled up with water, 
and on the evening of the meeting I stirred up the liquid mud 
and took the fish out. 
The fish, now being placed in clean water, fed freely on 
insects, tadpoles, and small bits of meat, and was growing 
quite fast when a disaster occurred. Too much water was 
put into the bottle, the fish jumped out, and could not be 
found. 
A SNAKE OF EXTREME RARITY FROM 
PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 
By G. D. Hale Carpenter, M.D. 
In August 1918, when on the Port Amelia line of com- 
munications at Anquabe, about forty miles west of Port 
Amelia, I found in the camp a curious little reptile which I 
sent home, thinking it would be of interest, as it was obviously 
of subterranean habits. About ten inches long, and no thicker 
than a stout steel knitting-needle, it had such minute smooth 
scales that the skin had a soapy feeling as in the ‘ blind-worm.’ 
Its anterior extremity tapered to a very minute head, in which 
a tiny mouth and eyes could just be discovered. The head, 
and about one-eighth of an inch of body immediately behind, 
was jet-black, as also was the posterior extremity, which so 
closely resembled the head that anyone might conclude he 
had found a ‘ two-headed snake.’ The body was brown, 
with a black line on each side of the mid-dorsal line, which was 
composed of a series of pairs of dark dots. 
The extraordinary likeness of the posterior extremity to 
a head had resulted in the snake receiving a disabling blow 
at that end, for I found it lying dead with a large abrasion 
a little way from the tip of the body. 
