322 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol.XVIU. 



$ 8h inches. Ventrals, $ 116 to 121 (157?), 9 123 to 128. 

 Subcauclals, $ 27 to 33, $ 25 to 28. The scales are 15 in the 

 whole body length. The eye is black, and the pupil not discernible 

 in life. 



Colour. — The dorsal brown colour varies. It is usually dark, and 

 at times almost black. The scales are outlined with black in speci- 

 mens of a lighter hue. The belly in all is uniform berry-red, much 

 the tint of a raspberry. Beneath the tail the hue is darker, and in 

 the neck becomes yellow, or dull orange. 



My wife encountered one on our garden path after dark, discerning- 

 its form in the moonlight. It remained perfectly still for a minute 

 or so till I arrived with a lantern. Even then it made no attempt to 

 escape, but lay quiet and extended. It made little, if any, resistance 

 to capture and when taken indoors, moved about not uneasily in my 

 grasp and with little show of timidity. It was only 7^ inches long 

 and quite an attractive little creature in its manners. 



It is one of the commonest snakes about Shillong. One man 

 brought me in eleven specimens in one day, which, he said, he had 

 found beneath stones. It is probably the most diminutive species 

 among our Indian representatives of this family. 



Rhabdops bicolor. 



Seven specimens, 5 $, 2 9. The largest was a 9, 2 feet and 2f 

 inches long. Ventrals, $ 209 to 217, $ 195 and 196. Subcaudals, 

 $ 73 to 79, 9 63 and 71. All the specimens accord well with 

 Boulenger's description (Catalogue, Vol. I., p. 301), however, no 

 labial touches the eye, except in one example, where the 3rd just 

 finds contact. Suboculars intervene above the labials, that above the 

 3rd when distinct from the prteocular being usually very small. The 

 anterior sublinguals touch 4 (not 3) infralabials. The scales are 17 

 in the whole body length. 



It is a singular snake in many shield characters and especially in 

 the possession of a single broad internasal and a similar single broad 

 prefrontal, and on this account alone is probably unique among our 

 Indian snakes.' The labials 5 with the 5th very long and none 

 touching the eye normally are also remarkable. The posterior 

 sublinguals are separated by one or a pair of small scales. In many 

 shield characters it is so different from the only other species classified 



