ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 551 



It appears to be a particularly common snake about Vizagapatam 

 according to Russell,* as many as half a dozen being found in a 

 night crossing the road. At Berhampur a little to the north of this 

 I met with it fairly often, but never in such numbers, nor have I 

 found it as common in any other part of India as Russell reports it 

 from Vizagapatam. 



Description of lepidosis. — Rostral. — Touches 6 shields, the sutures 

 it makes with the anterior nasals twice or three times those made with 

 the internasals. Internasals. — A pair ; the suture between the fellows 

 from three-fifths to two-thirds that between the prefrontal fellows and 

 about two-thirds to three-fourths the internaso-prsefrontal sutures. 

 Prefrontals. — A pair ; the suture between the fellows, subequal to 

 the prsefronto-frontal sutures: touching the internasal. postnasal, loreal, 

 praeocular, supraocular, and frontal. Frontal. — Length subequal to the 

 supraoculars, breadth in a line connecting the centres of the eyes 

 about one-third to one-fourth greater than supraoculars : touching six 

 shields, the fronto-supraocular sutures about one fourth longer than 

 the rest. JVasals. — Completely divided ; touching the 1st and 2nd 

 supralabials. Loreal small, squarish. Praioculars. — One just reaching 

 the top of the head but not meeting the frontal. Postoculars. — Two. 

 Temporals. — Small, scale-like, anteriorly usually two, sometimes one 

 or three. Supralabials normally 8 with the 3rd, 4th and 5th touch- 

 ing the eye. Tnfralabials. — Usually 7, the last 3 or 4 touching the pos- 

 terior sublinguals ; the 1st meeting to make a suture subequal to that 

 between the anterior sublingual fellows : the 7th much the largest, 

 and in contact with three scales behind. Sublinguals. — Two pairs 

 of subequal size or the posterior rather longer ; the posterior fellows 

 in contact anteriorly usually. Costals. — Two heads lengths behind the 

 head 21, midbody 21, two heads lengths before the vent 15. The 

 absorption of rows is peculiar ; at the step from 21 to 19, which occurs 

 shortly after the midpoint of the body, the uppermost lateral row dis- 

 appears and is almost always absorbed into the vertebral, with the 

 result that at this spot the vertebral becomes suddenly larger, and 

 especially so if the absorption occurs on both sides simultaneously. 

 I have known it absorbed into the row below. At the second step 

 from 19 to 17, which occurs very close to the first, the 4th row above 



• Ind. Serp., Vol. I, p. 21. 



