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



appear shortly in this journah The genus therefore as now constructed 

 includes 24 species. It is very closely allied to the genus Simotes, in fact 

 it remains to be seen whether there is a natural division between the 

 two genera, and if so again whether some of the species as now 

 arranged have not been intermixed.* 



The variegated kukri snake. 

 OLTGODON SUBGRISEUS (Dum6ril et Bibron). 

 History. — There is little if any doubt but that the earliest specimen 

 of suhgrisevs of which we have any record is that collected at Vizaga- 

 patam and figured by Russellf 113 years ago, under the vernacular 

 name '' wanapa pam," scientific nomenclature in those days not having 

 come into use. It is possible too that the snake from Canara alluded 

 to by Jerdon as Xenodon duhium m 18531 was this species, as he says 

 the scales were in 15 rows, but he gives no description of it so that his 

 name has been ignored. I cannot however see cause for dismissing 

 the name tceniolata^ applied by the same author to this snake in 

 1853 in favour of Dumeril and Bibron's name suhgriseus in 1854.^ 



Nomenclature, (a) Scientific. — The generic name (from the Greek 

 oxlxos fewj and °^°"' tooth) was given by Boie to a Javan snake ( 0. bitor- 

 quatus) in 1827 on account of the paucity of its teeth compared with 

 other ophidians. The specific title is from the Latin " sub " beneath, 

 and " griseus " grey, the original specimen being this hue on the belly, 

 a circumstance due, I think, to the preservative since it is white in life. 

 English, [h) — The Variegated Kukri Snake. The name kukri snake 

 suggests itself to me as appropriate to the species of the genera OUgodon 



* My doubts are the outcome of a study of the skulls of 5 species of these genera in my 

 collection. Giinther (Kept. Brit. Ind., p. 205) divided the genera on the palatine teeth 

 including as Simoteis all those species in which these teeth were present, and reserving the 

 name Ollgodon for those in which they were absent. Boulenger (Cat., pp. 215 and 233) find- 

 ing that species which he considered OUgodon on other grounds possessed two or three 

 palatine teeth, divided the genera on the presence or absence of the pterygoid testh, conced- 

 ing the name Simotc» to the former, and OUgodon lo the latter, and supplemented this 

 arrangemeut by the number of the maxillary teeth, 6 to 8 being present in OUgodon and 8 to 

 12 in Simotes. As a matter of fact neither arrangement is tenable as both palatine and 

 pterygoid teeth are present in two out of three of the species in my collection which Mr, 

 Boulenger considers OUgodon, viz., ,'<ubgriseus, and veni(stU!<. In the third case (dorsaUs) their 

 absence is doubtful. 



t Ind. Serp., Vol. 1, Plate XIX. J J. A. S., Bengal, XXII, p. 528. 



§ J. A. fS., Bengal, XXII, p. 528 (noc to be confused with the Coronclla twniolata 

 of Boettger which is the Rhadlnea undulata of Brazil under present day nomenclature). 

 H VII., p. 59. 



