Dr. A. Giinther on new Species of Snakes. 13 conclusion, the muddy ground on which the horse-mussels thrive in Bressay Sound and in the Voes on the west coast of Shetland. The agglomerated masses of mussels, tangle-roots, stones, and odoriferous mud teem with marine life. Even where the margin of the sea is rendered perfectly turbid from mud (and this, too, calcareous), as at White-Cliff Bay, in the Isle of Wight, marine animals are abundant between tide-marks. There is doubtless some reason why animals were not found by Dr. Carpenter in the dredgings referred to ; but it is, on the whole, unlikely that such barrenness was due to the muddy condition of the water per se. Whether his alternative re-straining condition, viz. " the stagnation produced hy the al-most entire absence of vertical circulation,^^ be founded on a more secure basis, must remain, as he adds, a matter of future inquiry. II. — Seventh Account of new Species of Snakes in the Col-lection of the British Museum. By Albert GiJNTHER, M.A., M.D., Ph.D., F.H.S. [Plates III., IV., v., & VI.] The following species of Ophidians have been added to the collection of the British Museum since the publication of the last paper on the same subject in this Journal (June 1868, i. pp. 413-429). The total number of species in that collection amounts now to 920, and that of the typical specimens to 366. In the following lists a part of the species are marked with an asterisk (*) ; of these, as well as of a few others, I have added descriptions or short remarks. I. List of Species which were formerly desiderata. Typhlops travancoricus, Bedd. Travaneore. Capt. Beddome. Typhlops striolatus, Pirs. Khassya. T. C. Jerdon, Esq. Typhlops exiguus, Jan. Belgaum. Dr. Leith. Plectrurus sanguineus, Bedd. Anamallays. Capt. Beddome. Rhinophis punctatus. Mull. Ceylon. T. H. K. Thwaites, Esq. Adelphicos quadrivirgatum, Jan. Java, M. Boucard. Ablabes reticulatus, Jerdon. Khassya. T. C. Jerdon, Esq. Cyclophis monticola, Jerdon. Khassya. T. C. Jerdon, Esq. Colophrys rhodogaster, Cope. Rio Chisoy. 0. Salvin, Esq. Simotes albocinctus, Cant. E. I. archipelago. Dr. van Lidth de Jeude. Coronella (Liopeltis) sagittifera, Jan. Tucuman, Mendoza. Pur-chased.
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