17 MARCH 1906, Page 16

FLYING SNAKES.

[To THB EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:] SIE,—In your issue of January 14th, 1905, appears an article on the zoological observations of Herodotus. in an attempt to Vindicate, in part at least, the accuracy of the great historian's statements the writer of the article says : "it must be recollected that an air-traversing snake is not an utterly in- conceivable animal; we have the flying lizard, which glides through the air for some distance, supported by the parachute formed by the skin connecting its elongated ribs." It may interest you to learn that I found in Borneo two species of snakes capable of a parachute flight from the summits of trees, and I read a short note on the subject at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London held on March 6th; a published account will appear shortly in the Proceedings of