206 COLL'BRID-i:. 



food and water, and die in a short time from inanition. Tlie}'- 

 have never been observed to bite. 



226. Doliophis intestinalis. 



Aspis intestinnlis, Laur. Syn. Rept. p. 10(j (1768). ' 

 ElapsfurcnfAis, Schneid. ftist. Amph. ii, p. 303 (ISOl). 

 Maticom lineata, Gray, 111. Ind. Zool. ii, pi. Ixxvi, tig. 2 (1834). 

 Elaps mtesfinalis, Cantor, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, xvi, p. 1028 



(1847). 

 Elaps fnlineatus, Dum. & Ribr. Erp. Gen. vii, p. 1227 (1854). 

 Callophis intestinnlis, Giinth. llept. Brit. Ind. p. 348 (1864). 

 AdeniopJiis intestinalis, Bouleng-. Faun. Brit. Ind., Rept. p. 386 



(1890). 

 Doliophis intestinalis, Bouleng. Cat. Sii. iii, p. 401 (1896) ; S. 



Flower, P. Z. S. 1899, p. 693. 



As in the preceding, but ventrals 197-273 and subcaudals 15- 

 33. Brown or blackish above, with darker or ligliter longitudinal 

 streaks : belly yellowish Mhite or pale yellow, tail coral-red, both 

 with black cross-bars. Three colour-varieties are known to occur 

 in the Malay Peninsula : — 



Var. annectens, Blgr. Darlv b/own above, blackish towards the 

 middle ot the baclv, with a yellow or orange narrow vertebral 

 line. 



Var. lineatus, Gray. Greyish, reddish, or purplish brown, with 

 a pair of blackish dorsal lines bordering a scarlet vertebral stripe. 



Var. trilineutus,T). &^. As in the preceding, but the bright 

 vertebral stripe broken up by dark brown spots at regular 

 intervals. 



Total length 580 millim. ; tail 45. 



Burma, Malay Peninsula and Archipelago. Generally distri- 

 buted. Capt. Flower says : " Of the Malay poisonous snakes this 

 is perhaps the most frequently met with. I have come across it 

 both in bright daylight and atter dark, crawling slowly about ; it 

 is easily caught. What the effect of its poison on a man would 

 be is, i believe, quite unknown ; but from its small moutli and 

 want of activity it can hardly be looked on as a dangerous 

 species." 



Family AMBLYCEPHALID^. 



Facial bones slightly movable, the prrefrontal not in contact with 

 the nasal ; ectopterygoid (transpalatine) present ; pterygoid short, 

 not extending to quadrate or mandible; supratemporal rudi- 

 mentary ; maxillary horizontal, parallel with or converging 

 posteriorly towards the palatine. Mandible ^\ ithout coronoid 

 bone. Solid teeth in both jaws. 



Maybe readily distinguisiied from the Colubridas by the absence 

 of a mental groove, the mouth being susceptible of but slight 



\ 



