396 OPHIDIA. 



Daboia russellii. The Tic-polonga. 



Russell, Ind. Serp. i. p. 10. pi. 7 ; ii. p. 37. pi. 32. 



The Tic-polonga, Davy, Ceylon, p. 85. 



Coluber russellii, Shmo, Zool. iii. p. 418. 



Vipera elegans, Daud. Rept. vi. p. 124. Schleg. Phys. Serp. ii. p. 588. pi. 21. figs. 4 & 5. 



daboia, Daud. Rept. vi. p. 119. 



Daboia elegans, Gray, Zool. Misc. p. 69, and Viper. Snakes, p. 23. 



pulchella, Gi-ay, Zool. Misc. p. 69. 



iiissellii. Gray, Viper. Snakes, p. 24. 



Greyish brown, with three series of large black, white-edged rings, those of the middle 

 series ovate, those of the outer circular ; sometimes very small black, white-edged ocelli are 

 scattered between the rings. A yellow Ime on each side of the upper surface of the head, 

 the two lines convergent on the snout. Rostral and labial shields yellow with brown mar- 

 gins ; a subtriangular brown, black-edged spot below the eye. Belly uniform yellowish or 

 marbled with brownish ; generally more or less numerous semicircular brown spots on the 

 hinder margins of the ventral shields. Ventrals 163-170; subcaudals 45-60. 



The Tic-polonga, as it is called in Ceylon, is a native of this island and of the peninsula 

 of Southern India : we have received it from the Anamallay Mountains, from Waltair, Bombay, 

 and Almorah (5500 feet elevation) ; it extends into the Himalayas, a specimen having been 

 obtained in Kulu, at an elevation of 3400 feet. It attains to a length of 50 inches, the tail 

 measuring 7 inches ; it is thoroughly terrestrial, feeding chiefly on mice. It is one of the 

 most common venomous snakes, and, on account of its size and nocturnal habits, more 

 dangerous than the Trimeresures and Hypnales. A name usually applied to this species by 

 the Europeans in the Peninsula is Cobra monil. 



ECHIS. 



Echis, sp., Merr, 



Head covered with keeled scales : a pair of very small frontals behind the 

 rostral shield. Nostril small, round, directed upwards, situated in a larg^e 

 nasal shield, which is subdivided behind the nostril. Sides of the head 

 covered with keeled scales, two series of which are between the eye and the 

 low upper labials. Scales much imbricate, strongly keeled, in from twenty- 

 five to twenty-nine series, those in the lateral series have their tips directed 

 obliquely downwards. Subcaudals one-rowed. 



Only one species is found in India, which has been said to difier from its African congener 

 (-E. arenicola) in having an undivided linear supraciliary shield, whilst it is generally broken 



