COLLECTION OF SNAKES IN THE NILGIRI HILLS. .563 



varied from 6j to 7f inches in length. Two others of 12 and 14^ inches 

 respectively, taken in September were evidently last year's broods, so that 

 it about doubles its length in the first year of life. 



Lepidosis. — In one the 7th labial was confluent with the lower temporal 

 and did not descend to the margin of the lip. The postoculars were 4 on 

 one side in one specimen, and the temporal single on one side in one speci- 

 men. The ventral count ranged between 133 and 141, and the subcaudal 

 between 78 and 88. 



The Green Keelback. — Macropisthodon plumbicolor (Cantor). 



Mr. Vernede tells me his coolies call it '• pacha uaga" (="green cobra") 

 a very appropriate name when one considers the degree to wdiich it can 

 flatten the neck cobra-wise. 



This is one of the commonest snakes in the Hills, 106 examples having 

 been collected. It favours an altitude between 3,000 and 6,000 feet; 

 and was quite common at Kalhatti at 6,300 feet. Only 2 specimens 

 came in from the Wynaad side out of the large total collected there. Of 

 39 sexed, 26 were S and 13 $. 



Colour. — The verdant-green hue is not due to a green pigment. It is 

 due to a yellow pigment that overlies the scales as a s«)rt of varnish, and 

 which is soluble in spirit leaving the specimen blue. Some specimens 

 are darker than others due to the varying abundance of the yellow pig- 

 ment, and in these the scales are plumbeous when the pigment is removed. 

 The inappropriate specific name plumbicolor is thus accounted for. The 

 remarks made on the colour of the snake Dryophis mycterizantt apply 

 equally well to this species. I skinned a few, cleansed them in my bath 

 with soap and water and placed them in spirit. In a few days a very 

 distinct yellow tinge was imparted to the liquid, and as I boiled it down 

 the colour became deeper and deeper, but I could not separate it out as a 

 powder. 



The skin strips easily as is usual with snakes. It is slate coloured 

 on the inner side, and the integument around the last three or four 

 costal rows is white. Short white lines are scattered through the skin 

 becoming fewer up the sides of the body. Another very curious pecu- 

 liarity I have seen in no other snake. I allude to an arrangement of 

 small, extremely regularly-disposed, series of ring-like spots, on either 

 side of the 9th and 10th costal rows above the ventrals. These are placed 

 at the angles of the scales referred to, are in the integument itself, and 

 if looked for can be seen from the epithelial surface. Where the rows 

 in midbody are 2.5, five rows intervene vertebrally between these spots, 

 and where 27, seven rows. 



Food.— A remarkable partiality in diet is shown towards the toad Bufo 

 melanostictus. No fewer than ten had swallowed this batrachian, and 

 two of these were quite young specimens. One adult had accounted for 

 two, and another for three large specimens. In some cases the distension 

 was extraordinary. For instance a snake measuring three inches in girth 

 was five and a quarter inches round the gastric region, and found to 

 contain a toad with a head fully twice the transverse diameter of that of 

 the hosfs ! Frogs were taken by three examples, once Ixalus variabilis, 

 and once a species probably of I.talus. 



Breeding.— It seems rather remarkable that no single specimen proved 

 gravid. I have definitely ascertained (and reported in this Journal, 

 Vol. xvi, page 390) that the young hatchling varies from o^ to about 6i 

 inches. I got one measuring 6| inches in August, and twenty others, 

 young of the year, varied from 7J to 10 inches in the months of August 

 and September. 

 31 



