ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 545 



species of any other genus, but which will probably be found to be 

 the same in others of this genus. In all other snakes where a sexual 

 disparity is noticeable I have found the length greater in the males. 

 I may here remark upon the very striking resemblance this 

 snake with others of this genus bears to some vipers. The shape 

 of the head, the vertical pupil, and the constricted neck are typically 

 viperine, to which may be added the method of striking, to which 

 I shall refer hereafter. On the other hand, it is noticeably 

 different from vipers in the large plaque-like shields of the head, 

 in the profile outline of the commissure of the mouth which does 

 not show that marked downward curve corresponding with the 

 position of the viperine fang, and in the slenderness, length, and 

 compression of the body. The tail, too, is relatively longer in 

 Dipsadomorphv s. The viperine similarities affect the very features 

 which most readily attract the eye ; the dissimilarities on the other 

 hand are far less noticeable to one unfamiliar with these creatures. 



Colour and Markings. — The ground colour is usually of a light 

 yellowish-brown, sandy, or fawn hue which may be uniform, or, 

 more or less mottled with darker shades, specially low in the flanks 

 or sparsely scattered with black spots. Dorsally a series of dark more 

 or less distinct * shaped marks occur on each side, which fade 

 posteriorly, ending at or before the vent. The shade between the 

 arms of each * is lighter, often indeed whitish. Where the series 

 of one side exactly meets the fellows of the other on the spine, as 

 frequently happens in part if not the whole length of the body, these 

 marks resemble arrowheads. Blyth* says the very young are pale 

 with but slight traces of the adult marks, but I cannot say that my 

 young specimen was much, if at all, different from adults. I have 

 noticed that the skin between the scales is dun, and somewhat darker 

 in the gamma marks, and in sloughs these marks are obscurely 

 traceable. 



A specimen I got in Delhi was much the colour of tea and milk, 

 and was copiously specked with very fine punctiform dark spots, the 

 gamma marks being very obscure. 



The head bears a pair of large lung-shaped brown patches, often 

 delineated with black, and a narrow dark streak passes from behind 

 the eye towards the gape. Annandale f mentions a variety from the 



* Loc. cit. f Jour1 ' Asiat. Soc. Bengal, Vol. LXXI1I, p. 209. 



