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



from the Latin meaning " painted " was given by Gmelin in 1788 

 in allusion to the sky blue patches on the scales seen in this, and 

 other species of the genera Dendmphis, and Dendrel aphis. 



(h) English — In contradistinction to the last I think it should be 

 called the Himalo-Malayan bronze-back. 



» 



{c) Vernacular. — In the Patani-Malay States Annandale and 

 Robinson* say it is called " ular lidi ", " ular '"-snake, and " lidi " the 

 midrib of the cocoanut palm. They remark that the appropriateness 

 of the name is realized when one sees a leaf of this palm from below, 

 with the midrib black against the sky, and an apparent light space 

 on either side of it, due to the comparative narrowness of the leaflets 

 where they leave it. 



Colour and markings. — Dorsally the snake is uniform bronze-brown 

 down to the middle of the jienultimate row, where a faint black line 

 abruptly demarcates the dorsal colour from a yellow flank stripe. 

 The costal scales where overlapped, exhibit a patch of sky blue bor- 

 dered with black before and behind. These are usually concealed, 

 but when the snake dilates itself become very Gons|iicuously apparent. 

 The head is coloured like the dorsum above, this hue abruptly giving 

 place to yellow on the side of the iace. A very conspicuous, broad, 

 black baud behind the eye passes back to the side of the body, and 

 is continued in the whole body length as a conspicuous black line on 

 the edge of the ventrals, bordering the yellow flank stripe below and 

 rendering it specially evident. The belly is uniformly yellow, 

 greyish, or greenish. 



It will be noticed that many of the dislinctive marks seen in 

 Dendrelaphis tristis are absent, viz.., the light vertebral stripe, the 

 interparietal spot, and the black margins to the anterior supralabials. 



On the other hand, a very distinct, broad postocular band is to be 

 seen in pictus passing well down the body, and the light flank stripe, 

 is bordered below by a black line. These colour differences were 

 noted by me 10 years ago on comparing Burmese with South Indian 

 examples, and made me think the two snakes probably different, but 

 I was deterred from declaring my conviction, finding but one difference 

 in lepidosis, viz., the contact of the !;upnilabials with the eye. Since 

 this I have learnt that there is a very noticeable difference between 



* FaBcic. Malay. Batrach. and Eept., October 1903, p. 163. 



