ON COMMON INDIAN SXAKES. 103 



we'l aoree with anfkup. Ainan lale* says that those from the Mala- 

 kand ara raportod to have yellow marks. Greenf mentions one from 

 Peradeniya, Ceylon, with some of the m3dian sca'es in the anterior 

 white bands yellow, and Annandale* speuks of a similar specimen 

 from Pamhan in S. India t 



In 5 Oevlon specimens collected in Peradeniya, I found the hands 

 far less distinct than in Indian forms, the colour Itelnf^ dirty white, and 

 the o-rounil colour Iirown rather than black. 



Lienti/icatiim — The i emarks on aM//(;?t5 under this heading apply- 

 also here. Attention must be given to the following : (1) a single 

 loreal touching the internasal, (2) scale rows 17 in mid body (3) nisals 

 touching the 1st and 2nd supralabials and (4) supra'ab'als 7 or 8. 



Haunts. — I have known this snake in the house, like its commoner 

 ally aulicns. one in Fyzal)ad came inti) the Cantonment Hosi)ital. and 

 another was encountered in the Officers' Mess ot' the 85th K. S. L. I. 

 Three or four were unsarthed at different times during digg'ng 

 operations. It hides away during the day time in holes in the ground, 

 heaps of debris, crevices of brickwork, stacks of wood. etc. 



Disposkion — All the specimens 1 have ^een alive exhibited a very 

 timid disposition. I never knew one strike no matter what the 

 provocation. Usually it made no endeavour to e^oapo but coiled 

 itself, and if touched or teased, hid its head beneath its coils, looking 

 out cautiously from time to time to see if the danger a[)prehended had 

 disappeared. It sometimes dattens itself to the ground in a remark- 

 able way. 



JIalnls. — Like the common wolf-snake it is decide lly nocturnal, 

 I met with two at different times at night on the road between the 

 Mess and my house at IJerhampore lOiissa), and on both occasions 

 there was no endeavour to retire from the situation, no attempt at 



* .Mem Asiat Soc , Bengal, I. lo, p 194. 



+ Spol. Zeylan , A arch i'JUo, p. 2 5. 



X i know that auUcus and striatic are frequantl;' confused one with the other, and I have 

 found several epecim n^ in various muse-.ims inc rrecily identifi?il. if one leters to ihe 

 abnortnaliiies n pcaling ihat 1 have remarked upon in the wo ^pec•iea m ibis pa, er, it will 

 be app.irent hnw easily a mista e 'uay ari e, since the points made use ot in iLe j-ep rati n 

 of he two 81/ecies are subject to sotne variation. iMorecver, a unetake, L not infrequently 

 committed in days gone by, may occur with others. 1 1 is very easy to miscount the upper 

 lab ala in the Li/ci)io:i>;, and to omit to count the hst which is often not so evidently one of 

 Ihe series as one sees n other snakes, la all cases the mouth ehoulJ De opened, and theeo 

 •hielde then counted t J the gape. 



