A POPULAR TREATISE ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 777 



Bronze Back. I have heard it iilluded to as the painted tree snake, but 

 since all the species are alike in the oserulean adornment which 

 suggested the term painted, this adjective is equally applicahle to all. 



(c) Vernacular — In Ceylon Ferguson* says it is called '' haldanda." 

 Mr. E. E. Green interrogated two intelligent Singhalese with respect 

 to this term, and they said they knew a snake of this name which 

 they described as " a very swiftly moving snake of a dark-brown 

 colour," and said it had a yellow belly. The word is from " hal " rice 

 and " danda " a stiok or whip. The connection is not very obvious 

 but an observation of Annandale and Robinson's with regard to the 

 snake D. pictus suggests itself. Tliey remark that it is often found 

 among bushes at the edge of rice fields. One of the two men above 

 referred to told Mr. Green it is also called " katt^a-kaluwa," meaning 

 black mouthed, but whether this Kame is rightly applied to this 

 specins seems dubious, as it does not appear appropriate. Ferguson t 

 mentions this term in his list of Singhalese names for snakes, but 

 without specifying the species. 



Confusion in vernacular nomenclature with regard to snakes is 

 great, thus we find another Singhalese name, viz, " ahaetulla " wi-ongly 

 applied to this species. Linne| in 1754, Laurenti § in 1768 and 

 others since have made use of the term in reference to the snake now 

 identified by Boulenger as D. pictus, but it is clear that the word 

 emanating from Ceylon refers rather to the Ceylon snake tristis. 

 There is however, now, I thmk no doubt that " ahaetulla " is the correct 

 Singhalese name for the green whip-snake ( Dryophis mycterizans), 

 the word implying eyeplucker being synonymous with the " kan- 

 kotti-pambu " of the Tamils in Southern India. Further confusion has 

 arisen with regard to the name " kumberi-muken." Russell^J connects 

 this name with the snake J), tristis, and many others subsequently 

 have followed him, but I think there can be no doubt that it is 

 correctly applied to the green whip-snake (D. mycterizans). The 

 name meaning "snouted tree snake " obviously suggests the green 

 whip-snake, and is quite inappropriate to the common bronze-back. 

 Moreover, in a printed copy of a lecture on snakes delivered some 

 years ago by the Rev. Fr. Bertram, s. j., of which I have a copy, 

 this authority says *' 1 believe these two difi'erent names (kan- 



* Kept, fauna of Ceylon, 1877, p. 20. t loc. cit. p. 40. J -Mns. Ad. Frid p. 3&. 



Plate XXII., fi?r. 3. § Syn. Kept. \>. 7<t. \ Ind. Serp. Vol. I, p. 36 ami Plate XXXI. 



