542 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
constrictor, (Atwood, ’16). Between the pancreas and the an¬ 
terior termination of the portal vein branches from the parietes 
are received both before the vein reaches the liver and along its 
course in the dorsal surface of the liver. These veins vary from 
five to ten in number; four of the specimens examined having 
only five, three having ten, and others varying between these 
limits. 
The veins of this series which enter the portal vein near the 
anterior end of the liver come from the left dorsal parietes while 
those which enter the portal vein more posteriorly have a ten¬ 
dency to come from the right. This is also true for Zamenis 
constrictor, (Atwood, ’16), and of Tropidonotus natrix, (O’Don- 
oghue, ’12). 
Numerous veins enter the portal from the esophagus. They 
lie in the mesentery which connects the liver and the alimentary 
tract. The most anterior of these runs far forward as the con¬ 
tinuation of the portal. It carries blood from the esophagus but 
does not reach the heart. This vein has been variously described 
in other snakes, (Beddard, ’04; Cope, ’00; Atwood, ’16). It 
is absent in Tropidonotus natrix (O’Donoghue, ’12). 
The Epigastric Vein 
The epigastric vein originates just anterior to the anus and 
extends forward in the muscles of the ventral body wall to near 
the head. Above the center of each gastrostege it receives a 
branch from the lateral body wall of each side. It is single 
throughout its entire length excepting where it is divided in 
some specimens by the scar of the umbilicus, where it is double. 
This indicates that it was double originally. 
Normally the epigastric vein receives one or two branches 
from each afferent renel vein in the vicinity of the cloaca. 
These may be connected with the oviducts or vagina. 
Between the posterior kidney region and the pancreas the epi¬ 
gastric vein is connected with the vein of the fat body by from 
eight to fourteen veins in the specimens examined. The most 
anterior of these originated far forward of its connection with 
the epigastric vein. This indicates that in this genus the pan¬ 
creas now lies farther forward than formerly. 
In the short space between the pancreas and the liver from 
