288 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX, 



Bodily configuration. — The body is cylindrical, slenderfor its length, 

 and very uniform in girth throughout, perhaps suggesting the form of 

 a reed used in the generic title. The head is moderately flattened, the 

 snout moderately rounded, and the neck evident. The eye is rather 

 large and the iris colourless, so that during life the shape of the pupil 

 which is vertical cannot be seen. The nostril is small. The tail is 

 rather short, being about one-fifth the total length. The belly is 

 strongly angulated on either side. The whole snake is smooth and 

 glossy. 



Colour. — Dark-brown or black above, fading somewhat posteriorly 



with from 35 to 50 conspicuous white or yellowish cross bare in the 

 whole length of the snake. These are most conspicuous anteriorly 

 where they involve 2 or 3 scales vertebrally and are more widely 

 separated there than behind. Frequently they are not pure white or 

 yellow, but sullied more or less with a brownish mottling or speckling. 

 In the young they are usually yellow, and often but not always tend 

 to grow whiter with age ; those shown in our Plate being remark- 

 ably white. The head in the young is yellow or suflfused with yellow 

 which tends to become more localized with age and form a more or 

 less conspicuous band on the back of the head. The under parts are 

 pearly-white, creamy, or yellowish throughout and unspotted. It is 

 a very handsome and graceful little snake, the specimens marked with 

 pure white as in our plate being remarkably attractive. 



Identification. — (1) The scales are in 13 rows in midbody. (2) The 

 prefrontal besides touching its fellow and the frontal is in contact 

 with 5 (or 6) other shields, viz., the internasal, postnasal, loreal, one 

 or two prseoculars and supraocular. (3) The loreal touches the eye. 

 There can be no doubt of its identity if these points are sought for in 

 the order above given and are found to co-exist. 



Haunts. — My knowledge of the Bridal Snake, though very limited, 

 points to haunts and habits closely akin to that of the Common Wolf- 

 iSnake. The first I encountered was in a house on the banks of the 

 Chilka Lake. Sitting after dinner in a room on the ground floor [ 

 saw it moving beneath the chair of a friend. I ran for a stick and 

 tried to kill it, believing it to be a young krait. Had the stick been 

 a flexible cane I would probably have despatched it with the first 

 blow, but I made several ineft'ectual attempts to strike it, the stick 

 making an angle with the floor ])assing over it each time. The 



