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Show 482 MR. G. w. BVJTLER ON THE [June 14, Suborder COLUBRIFORMIA (continued). DUYAUIN/E. Fam. DENDEOPH1D.E. Fam. DEYOPHID^. Fam. PSAMMOPHID^E. Fam. DIPSADID^]. Fam. SCYTALID.E. Fam. LYCODONTID.E. Fam. AOEOCHOEDID.E. Suborder III. PROTEROGLYPHA. Fam. ELAPIDJE. Fam. HYDEOPHIDyE. Suborder IV. SOLENOGLYPHA. Fam. VIPEEID^E. Fam. CEOTALlDiE. Bendrophis picta ... Bryophis prasina ... Cmlopeltis lacertina Bipsas ceylonensis ... Leptodeira rufescens Bamprophis rufescens Elaps fulvius Hydrophis fasciata ... Pelamis bicolor Vipera bents „ aspis ,, arietans ,, nasicornis ... Crotalus durissus a c b c c 3* § IV. On the Subdivision of the Body-cavity in the Adult Snake. (0). Preliminary, and as to certain Extra-peritoneal Lymph-spaces. Once one knows what to look for and where to find it, it is not difficult to make out the relations of the peritoneum in Snakes of ordinary size, such as the Common Grass-Snake (Tropidonotus natrix) or the Common Viper ( Vipera berus). But without such knowledge it is, judging by my own experience, not so easy. I may perhaps be excused then if, in describing what is seen, I explain how to find it. I have spoken simply of the peritoneum, because, as may with advantage be stated here, the pleural cavity or cavities appear to be obliterated in all the Snakes I have examined [this will be discussed later, § VI.]. All my specimens have been more or less hardened in spirits, and it would seem that sometimes specimens which on the outside appear unduly soft are well adapted to our present purpose. To dissect a Snake, insert scissors between the skin and the ribs, and cut all along the body from the region of the heart to the cloaca, keeping rather to one side of the mid-ventral line, with the scissor-points close under the skin. Having then turned back the skin from the ventral side of the animal, nothing is simpler than to ease away outwards on each side the ribs and the muscles of the body-wall, so far as they close in the ventral side. W e then see, stretching from about the hinder end of the liver to not far from the cloaca, the well-known fat-bodies, sheathed ventrally by membranous tissue, which laterally wraps round outside all the viscera including the kidneys. Now, first, as to these fat-bodies. If the Snake under examination be a Python or a Cylindrophis rufa (and I think I might add the |
