782 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVIIL 



No. 1 specimen has 15 + 3 bars on body and tail, and the ventrals 

 and subcaudals 185 + 35. No. 2 has 15 + 3 bars, and ventrals and sub- 

 caudals 174 + 43. No. 3 has 15 + 3 bars and ventrals and subcaudals 

 193? + 37. All these specimens agree in the following ways. The 

 rostral is higher than broad; and the portion visible above is greater 

 than its distance to the frontal. The internasals are four, the median 

 pair separating about f of the prefrontals. The prefrontals are two. 

 It will be remembered that in our original partial specimen there 

 were four. The frontal is longer than the parietals. The anterior nasal 

 is much larger than the posterior, and the suture from the nostril runs 

 to the 2nd supralabial, a very unusual character in any snake includ- 

 ing the members of this genus. The loreal is about as long as high 

 or shorter. 



I think I can show good reason to doubt the accuracy of the 

 locality from which the type specimen is supposed to have been 

 collected, viz., Wynad (vide Boulenger's Catalogue Vol. II, p. 218). 



My study of the geographical distribution of snakes in India has 

 brought to light the fact that no less than eight species have been 

 recorded from Southern India on the sole authority of Colonel 

 Beddome which are otherwise only known from Tracts to the North 

 and East of Peninsular India. 



These are : 1 Tropidonotus parallelus, 2 T. subminiatusj 3. T. 

 himalayamis, 4 Lycodon jara y 5 Simotes splendidvs, 6 Bvngarvs 

 fasciatvs, 7 Simotes octolineatus, and 8 Dendrelaphis caudolinealvs 

 (vide Boulenger's Catalogue and Sclater's list of Snakes in the Indian 

 Museum, 1891). Now the first 6 of these are all to be obtained in 

 Burma, and the last 2 in Tenasserim. That Beddome received snakes 

 from Burma is certain as he presented specimens of Simotes cruentatus 

 and Dipsadomorphus hexagonotus from Burma to the British Museum 



(vide Boulenger's Catalogue). Again he obtained specimens from 

 Tenasserim as he presented the British Museum with specimens of 

 Simotes violaceus, and Simotes cyclvrus from that region (vide Boulen- 

 ger's Catalogue). This being so one cannot escape the conviction that 

 a collection of snakes from Burma including specimens of the first 6 

 specified above, and another from Tenasserim including numbers 7 and 

 8 were inadvertently mixed up with his Southern Indian Collection.. 

 The mistake is one very easy for any collector to understand. 



