OLIGODON BREVICAUDA. 211 



back of the tail ; a narrow black band runs along each side of the trunk. Belly white, with 

 quadrangular black spots, which are sometimes so numerous and so frequently confluent as 

 nearly entii'ely to suppress the ground-colour. The middle of the lower surface of the tail 

 always remains white. 



Inhabits, probably, Afghanistan, a second specimen having been found in Griffith's collec- 

 tion. It is a male, like the typical specimen. Total length 16 inches; tail 3 inches. 



Oligodon brevicauda. (Plate XIX. fig. A.) 



Oligodon brevicauda, Giinth. Ann. ^ Mag. Nat. Hist. Jan. 1862, p. 58. 



Rostral shield rather thick, broad, reaching far backwards on the upper side of the head. 

 Only one pair of frontals. Loreal none, the nasal being in contact with the smgle praeocular ; 

 two postoculars ; seven upper labials, the third and fourth entering the orbit; temporals 

 1+2. Scales in fifteen rows. Ventral shields 172 ; anal bifid ; subcaudals 30. Head with 

 the symmetrical markings usual in this genus, viz. a brown fronto-labial band ; the band on 

 the crown of the head is rather broken up, and its lateral portions are confluent Avith the 

 large nuchal band. Body greyish violet : a band runs along the vertebral line ; it is indistinct 

 anteriorly, light greyish on the middle of the body, and becomes pure white posteriorly and 

 on the tail ; it is bordered anteriorly by a series of pairs of small equidistant blackish spots ; 

 there are no black spots on the tail interrupting the dorsal band. A blackish longitudinal 

 streak on each side, along the third outer series of scales. Ground-colour of the belly the 

 same as of the upper parts, with black quadrangular spots ; subcaudals whitish. 



This species also was discovered by Captain R. H. Beddome in the Anamallay Mountains. 

 One might be inclined to consider it as the type of a distinct genus ; but this is forbidden by 

 its close proximity to 0. dorsalis. The only specimen we have seen is a female, 15 inches 

 long, the tail measuring 1 inch and 7 lines ; we have given a view of the upper side of the 

 head, besides the entire figure. 



Finally, Berthold (Gott. Nachr. 1859, p. 179) refers some snake to the genus OUgodon, 

 but the characters given seem to indicate that it belongs to another genus, wherefore we do 

 not propose an alteration of the specific name, which is preocupied : — 



"Oligodon dorsale. — Supra cinereum, linea mediana alba, ^dtta interoculari brunnea flexa; infra 

 album; squamis 13. Ventr. 183; an. 1; caud. 46. — Bengal." 



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