ON COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 89 



again more or less mottled with brown especially anteriorly, or some 

 of the labial shields bear a single median brown spot. 



There appear to me to be but two varieties and these are so mark- 

 et! that I am inclined to think they must breed true " inter se." 



In variety typica the brown varies from the light hue seen in 

 figure 1 to the dark-brown of figure 2. The bars are yellow or yel- 

 lowish never quite white in life, though the yellow becomes white 

 rapidly in spirit. They broaden laterally and dissolve into a net- 

 work pattern in which the scales involved are outlined with yellow. 

 This reticulation is not clearly shown in figure 3 of our plate. It 

 so often happens that the cross bars fade away posteriorly, that in 

 a large number of specimens one cannot count them in the whole 

 body-length. I have therefore noted in a large series the bars that 

 can be counted in the anterior half of the body (not including the 

 tail), and find that they usually vary from 9 to IS. In some un- 

 common examples they may be very few, or even absent, the latter 

 rarities conforming to the types of nnicolor (Boie), and hypsi- 

 rhinoides (Theobald). Further, the scales involved in the interval 

 between the first and second bars (not the bar on the back of the head) 

 vary from 5 to 10, and this is of importance in determining the un- 

 common specimens in which but two or three bars are visible. Typica 

 is the common variety distributed throughout Indian and Burmese 

 limits. In the second variety for which I propose the name oligo- 

 zonatus the ground colour is always dark, as in figure 2 of our plate 

 or darker still approaching black. The bars are white, not yellowish. 

 Laterally they dilate without dissolving into a net-work. They are 

 distinct in the whole body-length numbering from 11 to 19. They 

 are thus about half as numerous as in variety typica. The number 

 of scales involved vertebrally in the interval between the Jst and 

 2nd bars varies from 12 to 19. The lips are white not yellow. Of this 

 I got several specimens in Cannanore and have seen one from Bellary, 

 but no others. It probably occurs only in S. India where it is far 

 less common than typica. 



In both varieties the underparts are pearly-white, with in typica 

 sometimes a pinkish tinge. 



Dimensions. — It grows to about two-and-half feet, but specimen?, 

 over two feet are uncommon. I have records of only 19 over that 

 length, and all my largest are females. My largest $ record is 2 



