i6o Records of the hidian Museum. [Voi,. XXII, 



Distribution. — Burma; Siam ; Indo-China 

 Burma. Bhamo (Brit. Mus.. No. 7697, Ind. Mus.). 

 Siam. Bangkok, and Fat Bua Kao (Bombay colln.) ; Deu 

 Chai, Sriracha Koh Lam and Bangtophan (Malcolm-Smith). 

 Indo-China. Pavie Mission. 



Dendrelaphis tristis (Daudin). 

 Seba's Dendrelaphis (or Bronze Back). 



Dendropltis pictus. Abercromby, Spot. Zeylan.. Vol. IX, p. 146; Sn. of 



Ceylon, 1910, pp. 45, 48 and 75; Annandale, Mem. A.S. Beng., Vol. 



I, p. 194: Boiilenger, Cat., Vol. II, 1893, p. 337 (part); D'.'Vbreu, 



Bomb. N.H.J.. 1917, p, 306; Ferguson, Bomb. N.H.'J., 1895. p. 73; 



Green, Spot. Zeylan., 1906, p. 220 , Sclater, List Sn. Ind. Mas., 1891, 



p. 34 (part). (Nos. 7684, 7685, 7715, 7716, 7720. 7721 and 12952); 



Wall, Bomb. N.H.J., 1905, p. 301 ; Willey, Spot. Zeylan., Vol. I, p. 



117 ; I.e., 1906, p. 233. 

 Dendrelaphis tristis. Boulenger, Cat., Vol. II, 1893, p. 88; I.uard, 



Bomb. .X.H.J.. 1917. p. 30ti , Sarasin, Zool. Jahr.. Jena. 1910, p. 



131 ; Wall. Bomb. N.H.J.. 1909, pp. 347 and 757 ; I.e., 1910, pp. 35 



and 776; I.e., 1919, p. 567. 



Co/o«y. — Dorsalh' bronze, the bases and overlapped portions 

 of the scales narrowly edged with black. The lower black borders 

 enclosing patches of turquoise blue. A bufi anterior vertebral 

 stripe. More or less distinct, black, paired, lateral anterior bars. 

 A buff flank stripe ending at the vent with a black line above on 

 the upper half of the penultimate row of scales. Sometimes an 

 indistinct indication of a black line below the flank stripe. No 

 caudal lines or stripes. Ventrally greyish, greenish, or yellowish, 

 lighter anteriorly. Head bronze above. A small round buff s])ot 

 in the middle of the interparietal suture, tending to eifacement in 

 some old specimens. Lore dusky not black. The 2nd, 3rd and 

 4th (sometimes ist also) supralabials with thin posterior black 

 borders. A thin black postocular stripe just above the supra- 

 labials, ill-defined above. 



A specimen in the Bombay collection (No. 146-8) from 

 Nilambur is melanotic. It is a deep bluish-black dorsally with an 

 ill-defined light flank stripe between the ultimate and penultimate 

 rows. Ventrally bluish-clay-coloured, merging to buff on the 

 throat and chin. 



Food. — In its natural haunts it feeds upon lizards of the 

 families Agamidae, Geckonidae, and Scincidae, and frogs of both 

 arboreal and terrestrial genera. It has been seen to attack a 

 snake of the genus Typhlops. Young specimens, I am told, by 

 Mr. Green, feed on grasshoppers, and Dr. Annandale told me one 

 of his assistants once saw one eating a butterfly. In captivity in 

 the Madras Museum it takes frogs and toads with avidity. 



Breeding.— Vmm 4 to 10 eggs are produced at a time. These 

 are unusually elongate. Eggs deposited in Mr. Green's vivarium 

 in Peradeniya, Ceylon, measured 28 X 9 mm. (i|- X § of an inch). 

 I have found them even larger before deposition, one measuring 



