POPULAR TREATISE ON COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 293 



Colouration. — One of the most remarkable characters of this 

 snake which is remarkable in so many ways, is the brilliancy of the 

 iridescence seen on its scales when the light is allowed to glance 

 on them. Flower * thus remarks upon it : " The iridescent colours 

 of this snake are most beautiful, and wonderful. As it crawls along, 

 the curves of its body flash brilliant lights of emerald-green, 

 copper, blood-red, purple and electric-blue, while the actual 

 colour is a very dark rich coffee-brown." The specimens I collected 

 in Burma were black or blue-black rather than brown. The last 

 three costal rows are more or less heavily margined with whitish, 

 the last often uniform whitish. The young are coloured similarly 

 except that they have a yellowish or whitish head, or collar, but no 

 indication of either remains during adult life. Reinwardt thought 

 that these white-headed specimens constituted a distinct species to which 

 he assigned the name leucocephalus. The upper lip and underparts 

 are whitish (Flower says pale yellow) with sometimes slatish 

 streaks. The tail is streaked or mottled beneath. 



Identification. — The shields are so peculiar in this snake, that 

 one might mention several conditions which are unique, or nearly 

 so, by which identification is certain and easy. Perhaps the easiest 

 way to recognise it is by noticing that the frontal touches 9 

 other shields. Another method is by the fact that the rostral 

 touches 4 shields, viz., the internasals, and first labials only. In all 

 other snakes where it touches <£ shields only these are the nasals, 

 and first labials. Again excepting two vipers, viz., Eristocophis 

 mcmalioni and Pseudo cerastes persicus (both of which have only 

 small scales on the top of the head), it is the only snake within 

 Indian limits in which the nasal does not touch the rostral. Again 

 it is the only snake in which the 3rd labial touches the nasal 

 and not the eye. 



Haunts. — As its English name implies it is a burrowing snake, 

 living entirely beneath the soil. It is rarely seen above the 

 surface except when following up its quarry or under accidental 

 circumstances. One captured in the upstairs verandah of the General 

 Hospital in Rangoon had probably been conveyed there in the 

 earth of one of the pot plants. 



* P. Z. S., 1899, p. 657. 



