388 VIPERID^. 



SUB-ORDER III.— VIPERINE SNAKES. 



Maxillary bone short, furnished with long tubular, erectile, per- 

 forated fangs. 



Family, VIPERID^. 



Head broad or thick, scaly or incompletely shielded. Body stout. 

 Tail short. No pit in the loreal region. Pupil vertical. Scales keeled. 

 Viviparous. 



Daboia, Gray. 



Head covered with scales. Nostril lateral, oblique, extremely large, 

 in and between three shields. A. narrow superciliary shield. Sides of 

 the head covered with keeled scales, several series of which are between 

 the orbit and the low upper labials. Scales imbricate, strongly keeled, 

 in 29-31 rows. Suh-caiidals bifid. 



Daboia russeUi, Graij, Viper, Snahes, p. 24; Gunth. Rep. Br. 

 Ind. p. 39G ; Theob. Rep. Br. Ind. p. 217. Vipera elegans. Baud. Rep. 

 vi. p. 124. Daboia elegans. Gray, Zool. Misc. p. 69. — The Tic 

 PoLONGA OP Ceylon or Russel's Viper. 



Greyish brown, with three series of large, black, white-edged rings, 

 those of the middle series ovate, those of the outer circular ; there are 

 sometimes very small, black, white-edged ocelli between the rings. 

 A broad arrow mark on the head formed by two pale or yellowish 

 lines from the snout, over the eyes. Head elegantly mai'bled. A 

 brown spot below the eye. Belly uniform yellowish or marbled with 

 brownish, with generally numerous semi-circular brown spots on the 

 hinder margins of the ventrals. 



Hab. — Upper Sind (Jacobabad) the Punjab, N. W. Provinces, 

 Oudh, Rajputana, Kutch, Central and Southern India, Concan, Beogal, 

 Ceylon, Arrakan and Pegu. Happily not very common in upper Sind. 



Echis, Merrem. 



Head covered with keeled scales. A pair of very small frontals 

 behind the rostral. Nostril small, round, directed upwards, situated 

 in a large nasal shield, divided below. Two series of keeled scales 

 between the eye and the low upper labials. Scales imbricate, strongly 

 carinate, in from 25 to 29 series round the body, the tips of the lateral 

 series directed obliquely downwards. Sub-caudals entire 



Echis carinata, Merr. Tent. p. 149; Gunth. Rep. Br. Ind. p. 397; 

 Theob. Cat. Rep. Br. Ind. p. 218; Murray, Ildbk., Zool., S,^c., Sind, 

 p. 260. Horatta pam, Russell, Ind. Serp. i. pi. 2. (The Kuppur, 

 Sind; Foorsa, Deccan and Concan; Afai, N. W. Provinces.) Plate 



Brown or brownish grey, with a series of sub-quadrangular or ovate 

 w^hitish spots, edged with blackish. An undulating whitish line on each 

 side of the dorsal spots, each loop enclosing a round dark brown 



