A POPULAR TREATISE ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 789 



South Indian examples, and made me think the two snakes pro- 

 bably different, but I was deterred from declaring my conviction, 

 finding but one difference in lepidosis, viz., the contract of the 

 supralabials with the eye. Since this I have learnt that there is 

 a very noticeable difference between the two in the development of 

 the vertebrals, and still more recently in the dentition. 



I may mention here that the sky blue adornment just referred 

 to is not of sexual import, since it is to be seen in both sexes from 

 the earliest ages, and at all seasons. 



In the Andaman Islands a snake of this genus occurs which has 

 hitherto been considered merely a variety of pictus, but which may 

 prove to be a distinct species. It is referred to by Blyth in his 

 book " The Andaman Islanders " (p. 365) as being remarkably 

 rich coloured, green, and variegated, and appears to be common 

 according to this authority. Stoliczka* also speaks of it as being 

 common, and says it is a " beautifully bright yellowish and green 

 during life, each scale blackish in the posterior half." The same 

 authority! says that the usual continental form inhabits the 

 Nicobars, and the Cocos, but the green form is peculiar to the 

 Andamans. It is not however the only form found in this last 

 Insular group, since Dr. Annandale has sent me a specimen very 

 similar to the Burmese form except that the postocular stripe is 

 narrow and obscure, the scales are heavily outlined with black 

 and there is no black line in the flanks at the edge of the ventrals. 

 He remarks that the majority of the specimens from these Islands 

 are of the green variety, i. e., andamanensis. 



Anderson | describes this green variety in greater detail than the 

 other authorities alluded to. He says it is grass-green above, each 

 scale with a broad black margin, and the ventrals with a black 

 margin, as far as the keel. The black margins of the scales are 

 so broad that when body is at rest, by the overlapping of the 

 scales, the whole side of the body appears black. A black line 

 beginning in the lore re-appears behind the eye, and extends to 

 the neck where it becomes broken up into spots. 



I have not seen this form in life, but in spirit it appears uniform 

 Oxford blue, acquiring just the same hue that many other gi^een 

 snakes (Bryophis, Lachesis, Dipsadomorphus cyaneus, etc.,) do in 



* J. A. S. Bengal XXXIX, p. 193. t J. A. S« Bengal XLII, p. 163. 



X P. Z. S. 187', p. 1S4. 



