A POPULAR TREATISE ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 779 



patch of blue is broadly edged with black anteriorly, and posteriorly 

 and placed on the lower half of each scale so that it is usually com- 

 pletely concealed by the overlapping of the scale below it. In our 

 Plate (figures 3 and 4) this ornamentation is not done justice to, 

 the blue being neither bright enough nor broad enough. The head 

 is coloured above like the back, but the upper lip is yellow, creamy- 

 buff, or opalescent abruptly demarcated above. There is a roundish 

 yellow spot in the suture between the parietal shields (not shown 

 by our artist), thin black edges to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th supralabials 

 (sometimes the 1st also), and a somewhat obscure, narrow, black 

 postocular streak not or hardly extending to the neck. The belly 

 is uniform creamy-yellow, pale-greyish, greenish, or bluish green. 



The markings to which special attention is to be paid are (1) 

 the interparietal spot ; (2) the light vertebral stripe ; (3) the 

 black posterior margins to the anterior supralabials ; (4) the nar- 

 row, short, and often obscure black postocular streak and (5) a more 

 or less obvious black line separating the dorsal brown from the 

 yellow flank stripe. I find these present (except (1) and (2) in a 

 single example from Marmagoa) in all the specimens I have examin- 

 ed from the localities mentioned hereafter under distribution, and 

 none of these are present in specimens of Dendropliis pictus. In the 

 Eastern Himalayas where these two species are associated (on slopes 

 below Darjeeling) I saw many specimens last year, and learnt to dis- 

 criminate between them at a glance, by the marks above referred to. 



Dimensions. — The longest measurement I know is 3 feet 9 inches. 

 I obtained a specimen of this length in Trichinopoly. 



General characters.— -The Indian bronze-back is remarkably ele- 

 gant in colouration and form. Its head is rather elongate, snout 

 bluntly rounded, nostril small, and the eye large and lustrous with 

 a golden iris and round pupil. The neck is very distinctly constrict- 

 ed, the body long, slender, smooth, and rather depressed (i.e., flat- 

 tened from above downwards). The belly is conspicuously ridged 

 on either side as in Chrysopelea ornata. An usually long tapering 

 tail accounts for nearly one-third the total length of the snake. 

 This appendage is ridged beneath in the same manner as the belly. 



Identification. — The dual combination of enlarged vertebrals, and 

 ridged ventrals (see Diagram 1, figs. F and G) proclaims any snake 

 either a Dendropliis or Dendrelaphis, so that it remains to distinguish 



