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



one-eleventh the total length of the snake and is about equally short 

 in both sexes. 



Colour. — As in nearly all the vipers the colouration and markings 

 are very variable. Mr. Boulenger* speaking of another viper 

 ( Vipera ursinii) says " I must observe that vipers generally vary so 

 much, both individually and according to localities, that little 

 reliance is to be placed for specific distinction on that character." 



Usually the ground colour in Echis carinata is a light shade 

 of brown, buff, or tawny, and the markings are darker brown, or 

 even blackish. In sandy places, where I have usually met with it, 

 it harmonises wonderfully with its surroundings. Sir A. H. 

 McMahon writes to me : " The Echis adapts itself to the colouring of 

 the locality. 1 have found them of all shades of colour, from the light- 

 est fawn in sand to almost black in dark rocky country." The body 

 dorsaily is more or less mottled or blotched with darker shades some- 

 times with a decided regularity of pattern as in our plate, more fre- 

 quently I think irregularly distributed with no special arrangement. 

 These marks may be so obscure as to be hardly noticeable in light 

 specimens, or so heavily abundant that they form the predominating 

 colour when the specimen appears umbery or blackish. A light 

 undulatory line in the flanks is nearly always more or less evident. 

 The head often bears a light patch on the middle of the crown, which 

 is frequently shaped like a dagger, a broad arrow, or the imprint of a 

 bird's foot and there is often a more or less conspicuous streak behind 

 the eye. The belly is light, often whitish, and is more or less sparsely 

 or profusely specked, mottled, or spotted with darker, and often 

 rufous, bistre, or ruddy tints. I have sometimes seen a pinkish band 

 down the middle of the belly. 



Identification. — The undivided condition of the subcaudal shields, 

 taken with (2) the small scales on the whole of the top of the head 

 and (3) broad ventrals stretching right across the belly, distinguish 

 this from all other Indian snakes. These characters are shared by the 

 only other member of this genus, viz. Echis colorata, a much scarcer 

 and more local species inhabiting Arabia, and Palestine, and also 

 recorded from Socotra. The two are separated chiefly on the nasal 

 shield which in carinata touches the rostral, but in colorata is separat- 

 ed from it by small scales. 



* Proc. Zool. Soc, Lond., 1693, p. 598. 



