858 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVII. 



is more fitting, for the commonest varieties bear spots or blotches 

 arranged in longitudinal lines, so that those of one series alternate with 

 those of the adjacent rows. The creature is thus beset with quincunxes 

 (like the 5 on dice), and when the spots and intervals are alike in 

 size, a veritable chess board pattern is the result. 



Vernacular. — Tbe more I strive to acquire the native names for 

 snakes, the more hopeless it becomes. It is rarely that any two 

 members of a crowd will give the same name to a snake, aud it is 

 almost as certain that the professional snake-catcher, with a huge local 

 reputation, will call a snake by one name to-day and another to-morrow. 

 In Oannanore the common types of this snake were called " Nee'- Kolee" 

 and "Neer Mandallee", the former meaning "water-fowl" and the 

 latter " water spotted snake "; but I was never able to discover by 

 what means the one was discriminated from the other. Ihe former 

 was usually applied to small specimens, and the latter to large examples, 

 especially the boldly spotted ones. In most languages it is simply 

 called water-snake, as, for example, the Burmese " Ye mywe ", the 

 Tamil " Thanee pamboo ", the Canarese " Neeru havu " and the Hindi 

 " Pani ka samp ". Doubtless, these names are .applied also to many of 

 thejlomalopsids. 



The Canarese also call it " holay havu" or stream-snake, and 

 Russell's various colour varieties are " Dooblee ", " Paragoodoo", 

 " Naugealled Keaka ", " Neeli Koea ", " Dora ", and " Ourdia ". (See 



addenda.) 



Dimensions. — Nicholson* records a specimen 4 feet 3 inches, and 

 Blanfordf another of the same length. These are exceptional, for I have 

 the measurements of 55 specimens, and the largest taped 3 feet 10^ 

 inches. My notes refer to a host of other specimens in which the 

 lenoth is not noted on account of their meagre proportions. Of the 

 55 specimens referred to above, only 10 exceed 3 feet in length. 



Physiognomy and bodily configuration. — The head is ovate, rounded 

 from side to side, and the front narrow. The nostrils by their slitlike 

 form and superior position approximate to those of the true fresh- water 

 snakes (Homalopsids) and marine snakes (Hydrophids), as do also 

 the eves which are set with a decided inclination upwards ; but the tail 

 has not neen modified to a corresponding degree towards the true 



* " Indian Snakep, " page 90. 



| Jourl., Asiat. Soc, Bengal, XXXIX, pago 371. 



