36 INTRODUCTION 



in certain parts of the world, attention may be drawn 

 to the predominance of longitudinal dark and light 

 stripes in the Indo-Malayan representatives of the 

 American Elaps, shared by many innocuous snakes 

 of similar form inhabiting the same region, and 

 to the striped tails common to various Colubrids 

 of Madagascar, as if the snakes of a district had 

 agreed to conform to certain fashions in dress. 



It is further noteworthy, in relation to the theory of 

 warning coloration, that many Uropeltids, innocent 

 burrowing creatures living underground or concealed 

 under stones or rotting tree-trunks in the forests of 

 Southern India and Ceylon, hardly ever showing 

 themselves in daylight, are among the most striking 

 for their bright yellow or red and black markings. 

 We may point out at the same time the very marked 

 resemblance in form and coloration between the 

 Uropeltid Melanophidium bilineatum, and the Apodal 

 Batrachian Ichthyophis glutinosus, both occurring 

 together in Southern India. 



The colour of snakes often harmonizes with their 

 surroundings. Thus, many Tree-snakes, Boid, Colu- 

 brid, or Viperid, are of a bright green, like the 

 foliage in which they are concealed. On the other 

 hand, other Tree-snakes are not green, or only some 

 specimens are green, as in the genera Dendraspis and 

 Dispholidus. Desert-snakes are of the yellowish or 

 reddish colour of the sand or rock on which they 

 live, and in species whose range extends over different 



