90 JOURNAL. BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



feet 3g inches, and I have had four 9 $ larger, the maximum length 

 being 2 feet 5 inches. Mr. Millard, however, gives me two records in 

 excess of my figures. One is 2 feet 1\ inches, and another 2 feet 

 !♦ inches, the sex in hoth cases was not noted. 



Bodily configuration, physiognomy, etc. — The Wolf-Snake is rather 

 slender in form, the body cylindrical in outline or slightly 'flattened 

 ventro-vertet rally and of much the same girth in the whole body 

 length. The head is decidedly flattened, the snout broad, and rounded 

 with an obtuse transverse ridge in front. The neck is sufficiently 

 constricted to be distinctly evident. The nostril is moderate and 

 occupies the full depth of the suture between the nasal shields. The 

 eye is rather small and quite black so that no idea of the shape of the 

 pupil can be discerned in life : but shortly after death when the lens 

 becomes opalescent from post mortem changes, or after immersion in 

 spirit the pupil is seen to be vertical. The tongue is pinkish with white 

 lips. The belly is obtusely keeled on each side, a feature favorable to 

 clambering efforts. In this snake as in the dhaman, and many other 

 species the " angulation " as it is usually called reminds one in 

 section of a boat (see figure 1 B, Diagram 1, facing page 2o') of 

 V T olume XVIII of this Journal). The tail is rather short being 

 about one-sixth the total length of the snake. The whole snake is 

 glossy owing to the smooth and polished surfaces of the scales ; a 

 circumstance which has not escaped the Singhalese whose name for it 

 "tel " karawala, implies " oily. " 



Identification. — The first thing to look at is the loreal which in this 

 snake in common with a few others touches the internasal (see figures 

 A and B of Diagram). This relationship of these two shields is only 

 to be seen in 5 of the 11 known species of this Genus, in all the 

 species of the Genera Amblyceph edits and Trachischium, in Xylophis 

 perroteti and in certain specimens of some Ilypsirhina. In all 

 (he species of Lycodon that concern us the scales are in 17 rows in 

 midbody, whereas this number of rows is not met with in any other 

 species and genera just referred to. In L. aulicus and striatus the 

 1st and 2nd labials touch the nasal shields in the other three species 

 the 1st only. It now remains to distinguish aulicus from striatus. 

 In the former there are normally 9 supralabials, in the latter only 

 7 or 8. In the former the prreocular frequently but by no means 

 always touches the frontal, in the latter it never does so. In the 



