14 Records of the Indian Museum. [Voiv. XIII, 



Tail perfectly triangular in cross section, not prehensile, sub- 

 caudals in two rows, 55 to 58. 



Colour. Body rufous with broad brown bands ; head also 

 rufous. Spirit specimens show a broad temporal band with a 

 few white dots in the centre, sometimes the whole surface of the 

 body is brownish with deeper bands. Ventral surface steel 

 bluish, a few white spots on the sides in the anterior third of the 

 body. Tail dark with gray bands or dotted white. Ventral sur- 

 face of the tip of the tail whitish with the extreme point black. 

 Total length 19 inches, tail 3' 5 inches. 



Habitat. West coast of Peninsular India, including Coorg. 

 This species is not arboreal like its congener L. anamallensis , but 

 frequents low scrubby jungle full of dried twigs. The protective 

 disguise is almost perfect and it is reported to be very fierce in its 

 habits. 



Lachesis coorgensis, sp. nov. 



The collection of snakes received from Coorg, which forms the 

 subject matter of this paper, included this species, a specimen of 

 which I am sending to the Director of the Zoological Survey of 

 India. I have named the snake after the place from where the 

 specimens were obtained and it may be described as follows : — 



Head perfectly oval, slightly broader than long, snout nearly 

 squarish, passing insensibly into the lie&d, temporal swellings 

 large, scales of the head and snout moderate, smooth and imbri- 

 cate. Internasals separated by a scale nearly as long, and the 

 rostral broader than deep by at least i mm. A groove or a second- 

 ary pit formed by the supraloreal, nasal and the second upper 

 labial may or may not be present. When present it opens behind 

 into the loreal pit. The second loreal less than half the width of 

 the first or the third, supraocular large, broken into three, some- 

 times into four divisions : one very large postocular. subocular 

 sometimes divided, usually four small rounded smooth temporals. 

 Nine upper labials, third and the succeeding, ones separated from 

 the suboculars b}^ a row of three broad smooth scales. Sometimes 

 an intercalary small scale between the third loreal and the supra- 

 ocular, the same also separating the third labial and supraocular. 

 Twelve lower labials and four sublinguals, the hinder scales of 

 the temporal region very broad and keeled. 



Neck and Body. Neck about the girth of preanal region 

 or markedly narrower, scales round the neck 24, round the 

 thickest portion of the body 21 to 23. In the preanal region 15 

 to 16. Ventral shields 152 to 153, the preanal incomplete and the 

 penultimate shield notched in the middle, anal entire and broad. 



Tail slightly prehensile, thick, truncated at the end ; it is 

 compressed and oval in cross section, with a small spine at the 

 tip ; subcaudals in two rows, 35. 



Colour. Head brown, sometimes suffused with yellow, a 

 very broad temporal band (conspicuous in spirit specimens) edged 

 with white, rostrum and upper lip gray, lower lip either gray or 



