ON COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 99 



Gm7vth. — Tt is very difficult to follow the growth after the 2nd year 

 from the figures to hand in my note books. It is certain however that 

 wbeno ie year old the young have at least doubled their length beino- 

 over 1 foot 1^ inches long but they hatch over such a long period 

 of the year that the lengths become hopelessly mixed, leaving no gaps 

 to indicate successive broods. An unusual number of specimens 

 between 1 foot 6 inches and 1 foot 8 iuches in length at the same 

 period of the year, seems to indicate that this length is reached at the 

 end of the '2nd and beginning of the 3rd year. Again a large 

 number measuring from ] foot 9 inches to 2 feet, seems, to point to the 

 termination of the third year's growth. 



Didributim. (a) Geographical — Its range of habitat is very 

 extensive. It occurs throughout Peninsular India to Ceylon and the 

 Maldives. Westward it extends throughout the Punjab, to the lower 

 slopes of the Himalayas. I can find no record of it from Sind how- 

 ever. To the East it ranges through the Bramaputra, and Irrawaddy- 

 Salween Basins (including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands!, to 

 the Eastern limits of Indo-China in the continental part of the 

 Malayan sub-region, and through the Malayan Archipelago to the 

 Philippines. 



(b) Local — It is essentially an inhabitant of the Plains. I have 

 known it fairly common on the lower slopes of both Western, and 

 Eastern Himalayas up to about 2,000 feet, but it appears to rarely 

 wander above this altitude. Ferguson* in this Journal says thouoh 

 common in the low country in Travancore he has not recorded a single 

 specimen from the Hills. Floweif remarked on a specimen he 

 obtained at Penang at an altitude of 2 200 feet. Willeyjtoo says 

 that though common in the low country in Ceylon it does not appear 

 to ascend to o,000 feet. 



In the Plains it is common everywhere, and hardly a collection 

 of snakes amounting to half a dozen specimens made anywhere will 

 fail to show at least one representative. I cannot recall ever 

 having seen or hear J of a specimen in or close to water, or in damp 

 places. 



Lephtosis. Rottral. — Touches six shields, the rostro-nasal sutures 

 largest. Ii-ternasals. — Two, the suture between them one-half to three- 

 quarters that between the prefrontal fellows, equal to or rather 

 * Vol. X, y. 71. t P. Z. S., 1899, p. 664. + Spol., Zeylan., Vol. I, p. 117. 



