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



kotti-pambu and kamberi-mukken) denote the same snake ; for, 

 while the kan-kotti-pambu is acknowledged by all to be the 

 ijreen tree-snake, there is no other tree-snake with an elongated 

 snout which would justify the name kamberi-nuikken." Further, 

 the Revd. C. Leigh, s. j., who has 13 years' experience of Trichinopoly, 

 i-ecently wrote to me in response to my enquiries that green whip- 

 snakes were frequently kept in captivity at St. Joseph's College, and 

 the students and visitors repeatedly applied the name kamberi- 

 mukken," " patchai-pambu " and " kan-kotti-pambu " to this species.* 



Jerdont mentions " chitooriki-pambu " as one of the names in use 

 in Southern India, and Dr. J. K. Henderson tells me he has known 

 it called " panaiyeri-pambu " meaning palmyra snake in the same part 

 of India. According to Russellf it is called " rooka " in Mahratti, 

 *' goobra " about Hyderabad (Deccan), " maniar " about Bombay, 

 and " mancas " in Guzerat. Mr. E. Muir tells me that at Kalna, Ben- 

 gal, it is called " bet anchora " which means " lacerated with a cane." 



In Cannanore I heard it called " viilooni " from the Malayalam 

 villoo a bow (see legends hereafter). 



Colour and markings. — Dorsally the body is uniformly pm-ple 

 brown, bronze-brown or rarely ruddy-brown, except for the Vertebral 

 region which is usually more or less distinctly lighter, and the last 

 i-ow and a half of scales in the flanks, which are yellowish. The 

 vertebral stripe involves the vertebral and half the next row. It 

 may be conspicuous in the whole body length, or only anteriorly. 

 In the neck and fore body a series of oblique, black streaks, often 

 paired, and usually more or less broken up are always more or less 

 evident. A yellow flank stripe passes from the neck to the vent. It is 

 bordered above by a blackish, somewhat indistinct line, but imlike 

 pictus is not bordered below by a black line running along the edge of 

 the ventrals. 



When the snake under excitement dilates itself, small oblique 



patches of light sky blue on each scale on the back are brought into 



view, especially noticeable and brilliant in the forebody. Each 



patch of blue is broadly edged with black anteriorly, and posteriorly 



and placed on the lower half of each scale so that it is usually com- 



•Tue confusion is on a par with the Singhalese ''karawella," wrongly ascribed by 

 (iiinther to the Ceylon pit viper {Anciatrodon hypnale). Subsequent authors repeated the 

 mistake on bis authority, but there is now no doubt, I believe, that it is properly applied to 

 the Ceylon kruit (Bimf/anis cet/l<,rti(Hs). f J. A- S. Bengal XXII, p. 5-'9, loc. cit. 



