232 SPOLIA ZBYLANICA. 



" karawala " are believed to travel in flocks of seven, and when one 

 is killed and burnt the smoke is supposed to keep away the other 

 six. This incineration of snakes is an actual and definite practice 

 in Ceylon and the burning of a " pol-mal-karawala" {Chrysopelea 

 ornata) under the conditions indicated has been witnessed by my 

 friend Mr. James Parsons of the Mineralogical Survey, as he has 

 been good enough to inform me. 



Another difficulty in connection with the casual identification 

 of snakes is more apt to trouble those who know something about 

 snakes to begin with than those to whom they are a terra incog- 

 nita. I refer to the occasional capture of snakes of unusual size 

 belonging to well-known species. A case in point has quite 

 recently occurred to me as concerning the snake Aspidura copii. 

 The specimens of Aspidura which I have seen are slender snakes 

 of rather small size, a length of two feet being exceptional ; and 

 the head is long and tapering (compare this Journal, vol. II., 

 part VIL, plate facing p. 96). 



The other day (January, 1906), a bulky snake was sent to the 

 Museum from Avisawella by Mr. William Ferguson, Jr., which 

 severely tested the merits of my schedule. The last genus to 

 which it might belong seemed to be Aspidura. It had a single 

 internasal, short frontal, no praeocular, * 6 upper labials, 17 

 smooth scales round the middle of the body, 137 ventral shields 

 mottled with the dark ground colour, anal entire. 20 unpaired 

 caudals : in short, it was a female example of Aspidura copii. Its 

 size however, and therewith its general appearance, was remark- 

 able ; the length, as nearly as it could be measured in the coiled 

 condition in which the snake had been preserved and hardened, 

 amounted to rather more than 25 inches, of which the tail only 

 occupied two inches ; the girth was as much as 3f inches, giving an 

 appearance of great bulk; the head was widest in the occipital 

 region, close upon one inch across and greatly flattened, the small 

 eyes occupying a dorsal position and the snout rapidly tapering in 

 front of the eyes. In the Fauna of British India, Mr. Boulenger 

 gives the following dimensions of A. copii : Total length 16*5 

 inches, tail 2*8, these figures probably relating to a male. 



Upon opening the snake now under consideration, the ovaries 

 proved to be full of large eggs, three-quarters of an inch long by 

 about half an inch wide, seven in the left ovary, fourteen in the 

 right. From what has been said it will be clear that this is quite 



* The pnvsocular shields are shown in the text-figures A and B. As/ndiirn 

 copii and Dfwminimdhayi are the only Colubrine snakes in Ceylon which have no 

 prseocular. 



