106 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVIII. 



upper lip, and passes down the body along the flanks. In all the young 

 the upper lip is glossy white, but this invariably changes so as to 

 become a canary yellow in the adult. The lower lip is glossy white, 

 more or less finely mottled with cardinal or chocolate, especially about 

 the sutures. 



A crimson eye emulates the ruby in the brilliancy and softness of 

 its colour and the charm of its setting. The body dorsally is uniform, 

 or nearly uniform olive-green of various shades, in which some darker 

 spots are sometimes obscurely visible. Sometimes a more or less dis- 

 tinct lighter olive-green streak runs along the confines of the 5th and 

 6th rows above the ventrals. A well-defined flank line bright yellow in 

 adults, white in young, runs along the edges of the ventrals and is 

 continued almost to the tail tip. This is bordered below with a red or 

 cardinal line, beginning in the neck, and ceasing at or before the vent. 

 The contrast and definition of this dual band reminds one of a gay 

 hat ribbon. 



The belly is uniformly black posteriorly in the young, especially 

 beneath the tail, but becomes more and more abundantly mottled 

 with white anteriorly. In the adult the black is less protracted 

 anteriorly, frequently merges to a crimson brown, or bright maho- 

 gany, and the white dappling is more extensive and pronounced. In 

 specimens about to slough the red hues appear lilac. 



The pointed snout and pronounced canthus rostralis deserve special 

 mention, also the very unusual distensibility of the integument beneath 

 the chin. Here the intervals are broader than the shields, and scales 

 themselves, a feature which seems to me should argue a gastronomic 

 taste for relatively large creatures, whereas this is not supported by fact. 



Among the head shields the temporals are remarkable, perhaps 

 unique among Indian snakes. They are elongate, and disposed in two 

 oblique series of 3 each, the anterior being the larger. 



The penultimate supralabial is also remarkable in touching but one 

 temporal. 



In a few specimens a few of the subcaudals were entire, the 3rd and 

 4th in one, 3rd, 4th and 5th in one, 4th and 5th, 8th and 9th in one, 

 and 28th and 2^th in another. The supralabials were abnormal in one 

 or two. They were 9 with the 4th and 5th touching the eye in one, 

 and 10 with the 5th only touching the eye in another. Both these 

 aberrant features were present on one side only. 



