146 COLUBEID.l<;. 



India, Burma, Siam, Malay Peninsula and Archipelago. Not 

 uncommon and generally distributed in the Malay Peninsula, 

 living chiefly on bushes and trees. Capt. Flower observes that it 

 is very gentle when handled, and occasionally eats frogs. It feeds 

 also on lizards. Dr. Annandale says it is probably the most 

 abundant snake in the cultivated parts of the Patani- States, where 

 it is called " Ular lidi " (Coconut-palm snake), and is generally 

 found among bushes, often at the edge of rice-fields. According 

 to Major Wall (J. Nat. Hist. Soc. Bombay, xviii, 1907, p. ISO), this 

 snake is ovoviviparous. 



] 55. Dendrophis formosus. 



Boie, Isis, 1827, p. o42 ; Bouleng-. Cat. Sn. ii, p. 84 (1894) ; 

 S. Flower, P. Z. S. 1896, p. 883, and 1899, p. 670. 



Eye very large, as long as its distance from the rostral or the 

 anterior border of the nostril. Rostral twice as broad as deep ; 

 internasals a little longer than the prsefrontals ; frontal Ig to 1^ 

 times as long as broad, as long as its distance from the end of the 

 snout, as long as the parietals ; loreal elongate ; 1 prte- and 2 

 to 4 (usually 3) postoculai's ; temporals 2 + 2; 9 upper labials 

 (rarely 8), fifth and sixth or fourth, fifth, and sixth (rarely third, 

 fourth, and fifth) entering the eye ; 5 lower labials in contact with 

 the anterior chin-shields, which are much shorter than the pos- 

 terior. Scales in 15 rows, vertebrals considerably larger than the 

 outer. Ventrals 174-205 ; anal divided ; subcaudals 132-15S. 

 Olive, bronze-brown, or yellowish brown above, with red and green 

 shades, scales edged ^\"ith black, neck and sometimes top of head 

 red-brown ; a black stripe on each side of the head, passing through 

 the eye and extending on to the nape, where it considerably widens 

 and converges towards its fellow ; tA^o black lines may be present 

 along each side of the posterior part of the body ; upper lip 

 greenish yellow ; lower parts green. 



Total length 1420 millim.; tail 480. 



Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, Java. Ivno^^■n from Penang, 

 Prov. Wellesley, Selangor, Kelantan, Malacca, and Singapore, but 

 not so common as the foregoing. 



Genus DENDRELAPHIS. 



Bouleng. Fauu. Brit. Ind., Ptept. p. 339 (1890). 



Maxillary teeth 18 to 23 ; anterior maxillary and mandibular 

 teeth longest. Head elongate, distinct from neck ; eye large, 

 with round pupil. Body much elongate, feebly compressed ; 

 scales smooth, in 13 (or 15) rows, narro\\-, disposed obliquely, 

 with apical pits, those of the vertebral i-ow not or but very slightly 



