OLIGODON. 205 



FAMILY OF OUGOJ)OKY¥.^—0LIG0D0NTID^. 



Body cylindrical or slightly compressed, rather rigid, with a short, sub- 

 conical head, which is not distinct from neck ; tail of moderate length, 

 tapering. Body and tail covered with rounded, smooth scales, in fifteen, 

 seventeen, nineteen, or twenty-one series. Belly rounded or slightly angu- 

 lated ; subcaudals two-rowed. Cleft of the mouth rather short ; nostril 

 lateral ; eye of moderate size, with round pupil. Shields of the head 

 normal (except in OUgodon bremcaudd) : rostral more or less enlarged, flat 

 in front, but more or less produced far backwards. Maxillary teeth few in 

 number, the last being the longest, not grooved. Head nearly always with 

 symmetrical arrow-shaped markings. 



Small snakes, peculiar to the East Indies. 



Palatine teeth none OUgodon, p. 205. 



Palatine teeth present Simotes, p. 212. 



OLIGODON, Boie. 



Rostral shield more or less enlarged, or produced backwards ; two pairs 

 of frontals, in one species confluent into a single pair ; nostril between two 

 partly confluent nasals ; one prccocular, one or two postoculars. Scales 

 smooth, in fifteen or seventeen rows. Teeth in the maxillaries few in 

 number, the last larger than the others ; no teeth on the palate. 



The snakes of this genus are small, and confined to the peninsula of Southern India, 

 Ceylon, and a few of the larger islands of the western part of the East Indian archipelago. 

 Their "physiognomy" is so peculiar that they may be distinguished at once, and can 

 be confounded only with species of Simotes. The head is short, scarcely depressed; the 

 snout very short, covered in front with a rostral, which is always well developed, and some- 

 times produced far backwards between the anterior frontals ; these latter shields, shortened 

 in their longitudinal diameter and lengthened transversely, are always much smaller than 

 the posterior. The loreal is generally present, — in a few species absent, and then confluent 

 with the posterior frontal ; only once have I observed its absence in a species which, normally. 



