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



rows of scales in midbody, and the differences between t.hem will be 

 seen at a glance at the following table. 



The most important characters to distinguish tristh from its allies 

 are the narrow vertebrals in which the length very distinctly exceeds 

 the breadth, and only two labials touching the eye. To sum up then 

 any snake in which the vertebrals are enlarged, but obviously longer 

 than broad, with ridged ventrals, 15 scale rows in midbody, (i.e., 

 between snout and vent) and two labials touching the eye is Dendrela- 

 phis tristi'i. 



Haunts. — The common Indian bronze-back like all its allies 

 lives almost entirely in bushes and trees, I became most familiar 

 with it in Trichinopoly in my early Indian days, when I spent a good 

 deal of my leisure time birdsnesting. During my daily excursions I 

 frequently came across it, and have indeed met as many as three or 

 four in a single outing. 1 frequently discovered it lying on a branch, 

 when peering through low scrub, and if the snake lay still the chances 

 were it would escape detection, looking extremely like a small branch 

 itself. There is no doubt that its colouration is decidedly protective. 



An observation of Mr. E. E. Green's in a recent letter exemplifies 

 thi.s. He says — on the 8th of September 190o, he " placed a branch 

 with green foliage in the snake's cage. Formerly all the different 

 snakes coiled up together amongst the dry foliage of a dead branch, 

 but now they have sorted themselves, the green whip snakes {Dry- 

 ophis mycterizans) have moved on to the green branch while the Tro- 



