344 JO URN A L, BOMB A Y NA TURA L HIS TOR Y SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



mbn — that from TindhaiLa — obtained in July was gravid. It measured 1 foot 4 

 iinli3? aa I coitain3d "> egg^. la muiy specimens the loreal failed to touch the 

 internaml. This is remarkable for the contact of these shields is a generic 

 charaster and I have cnown no exo3ptiun in all th3 other species I am familiar 

 with. The adult is blackish but if examined closely, a yellow ground colour 

 is to h-i observed dorsally which is more or less heavily speckled with black, 

 especially at the lateral margins of the scales forming an obscure black sliiation. 

 Th3 bally in all my specimens was brilliant uniform yellow or orange. 



The length varied between Gj inches to 1 foot 4 inches. The ventrals 

 ranged from 123 to 140 ; and the subcaudals from 28 to 39. It appears to be 

 rare at the altitude of Darjeelmg if it occurs there at all, and it is evidently 

 uncommon below Tindharia, but not uncommon at altitudes between about 

 2,500 and 5,000 feet. 



Lycoilonjara (Shaw). 



A solitary specimen was sent me from Pashok, an adult 9 , and I examined 

 another in the Darjeeling Museum. The labials were 8 as I usually find them, 

 ( Boulenger says y or lu) and the 8rd, 4th and nth touched the eye. The 

 anterior Temporal was single. The ventrals and subcaudals 188 + 66. It does 

 not appear to have been recorded before from the eastern Himalayas *. 



Lycodon aidicus. (Linn). 



All the 19 specimens collected were from comparatively low elevations, viz., 

 8 from Tindharia where Mr. Wright tells me it is one of their commonest 

 snakes, and 1 1 from Pashok. They all conform to variety D of Boulenger's 

 Catalogue, except that the labials are variously mottled or spotted. One $ 

 captured between the l(»th and 2nth July contained 5 nearly mature eggs. 

 One specimen had swallowed a s<ink probably Lygosoma indica, and another 

 a mouse aud a skiak. In one the labials were 10, the 4th and 5th only touch- 

 ing the eye, in another the first 3 subaaudals were entire. 



Dinodon septtntrionalis (Gunther). 



A single young specimen from Phoobsering (circa 4,500 ft.). Length 9^, 

 tail 2| ins. Ventrals -01, anxl entire, subcaudals 9^*. Costals, two heads- 

 lengths behind head 17, midbody 17, two heads-lengths before vent 15. In 

 the step from 17 to 15 the 3rd and 4th rows above the ventrals blend. The 

 frontal is extensively in contact with the prascoculars. Contained a lizard of 

 the Genus Lygosoma. 



Zaocys nigromarginatus ( Blyth ). 



1 examined a single specimen which is in the Darjeeling Museum. 



LepJdo^is. — The costals are in i9 rows in the fore neck, bui become 18 by the 

 7th scale in the vertebral row behind the parietals being absorbed into the next 



have been obtained by him there if one refers to the Catalogue of the British Museum 

 (Bouienger, 1893 9(JJ. Adiled to these consideiiitions, there is the fact that in at lea«t one 

 other inat nee. vi le Dinodon scitoiitnonallx (Bnulenger, Cat.. Vol.. 1, p , 'M'A> a spec men of 

 Jerdon's ci l>iCt njj has be-n recorded dubiciusl> fmm the Kha>i I ills or Himal y 'S. 



* I have examine I another young specimen from Tindharia sent to me by the Bombay 

 Natural tiistory Scc.eiy about four years ago. 



