JOURNAL 



OF THE 



B O M B A Y 



^111*11*11 + Qfi^V^^ 



Vol. XVII. BOMBAY. No. 2, 



A POPULAR TREATISE ON !HE COMMON INDIAN 



SNAKES. 



Illustrated by Coloured Plates and Diagrams. 



By Captain F. Wall, I. M.S., G.M.Z.S. 



Pari III— With Plate III and Diagram VII. 



{Continued from / age 9 of (his Volume.) 



The Dhaman or Common Ratsnake (Zamenis mucoaus). 



Nomendatwe. (a) Scientific, — The generic name is from t'L 

 Greek f* " great " and ^s»ot " strength," and the specific from the Lat) r 

 mucosus, " slimy," which I need hardly remark this snake no more 

 deserves than any other of the suborder Ophidia. It appears to he a 

 popular notion that a snake is slimy, and even in these enlightened 

 days writers of travels, etc., frequently expose their ignorance by using 

 this inappropriate adjective to them. Some of our readers may ba 

 more familiar with its older generic title Ptyas, also a calumnious 

 epithet derived from the Greek, "rvus a " spitter." 



(6) English. — The name by wh'ch it is generally known is the "com- 

 mon ratsnake," but " dhaman," a name borrowed from the vernacular, is 

 almost as frequently in use. 



(c) Vernacular. — In Bengali, Hindi, and Marathi, all languages 



derived from Sanskrit, it is call ul " dhaman " the Sanskrit word being 



" dha i ana. " It is also calljd soimrimes ''dameen." Russell makes 



mention of this latter name*, and I hive heard it often. Woodrowin lis 



* Lid. *erp., Vol. L, plate XXV. 



