248 OPHIDIA. 



Cynophis malabaeious. (Plate XXI. fig. A.) 



Herpetodryas malabaricuSj Jerdon, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xxii. 1854, p. 530. 



Body and tail of moderate length, rather compressed ; head narrow, flat, not very distinct 

 from neck ; snout rather long, obtusely rounded. Rostral shield as high as broad ; anterior 

 froutals small, one-third the size of posterior, quadi'angular, broader than long. Posterior 

 frontals rather large, as long as broad. Vertical not twice as long as broad, five-sided, with 

 the lateral margins convergent, and with a right angle behind. Occipitals rather longer 

 than vertical, truncated behind. Loreal somewhat longer than high, irregularly quadrangular ; 

 one large prseocular, extending on to the upper surface of the head, and sometimes touching 

 the vertical. Two postoculars. Nine low upper labials, the fourth, fifth, and sixth coming 

 into the orbit. Two elongate temporals are in contact with the postoculars; the hinder 

 temporals are irregularly arranged, varying in size and number. Anterior chin-shield in 

 contact with five lower labials. Scales smooth, with two apical grooves, in twenty-five series. 

 Ventral shields 222-239; anal entire; subcaudals 91-95. Each maxillary is ai'med with 

 fourteen teeth, the middle of which are rather longer than the others. Light brownish olive, 

 with about twenty-two black cross bands, one-half or one-third as broad as the interspaces of 

 the ground-colour between them ; they disappear towards the end of the trunk, and each 

 encloses six white ocelli, two on the back and two on each side ; each band emits below two 

 arched black lines crossing some of the ventral shields, one running to the band in front, the 

 other to the band behind. The first band is modified into a white, black-edged collar. A 

 broad brown band runs along the side of the tail and of the posterior part of the trunk. 

 A short black vertical streak below the eye ; another oblique streak fi'om behind the eye, 

 along the suture between the seventh and eighth labial shields. 



This beautiful species is not very rare in Malabar ; we received our specimens from the 

 Anamallay Mountains, through Captain Beddome : the largest is 15 inches long, the tail 

 measuring 3 inches ; it had swallowed a mouse. 



PTYAS. 



Ptyas *, Fitzinger. 



Body elongate, more or less compressed ; tail one-tliird or rather more 

 than one-third of the total length ; head distinct from neck ; eye rather 

 large ; nostril lateral, between two plates. Shields of the head regular ; 

 two prseoculars ; two or three loreals. Scales smooth or feehly keeled, in 

 fifteen or seventeen rows ; ventrals without keel ; anal bifid. Maxillary 

 teeth gradually increasing in length posteriorly. 



* I adopt this name, although iinaccompanied by a proper diagnosis, in preference to that of Coryphodon, 

 because the latter is preoccupied by a genus of fossil Mammalia (Owen, Brit. Fobs. Mamm. 18 14-46). 



