26 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXII. 



specimens I have had were 1 foot 3| inches from Almora in 

 March, 1 foot 3^- and 1 foot 3^ inches from Paralai, dates of 

 capture unrecorded. 



Parasite*. — I have found the stomach invaded by the nematode 

 worm Kallicej'halus witteyi. 



Distribution — (a) Local. — I have always regarded Coluber helena 

 as a hill snake that rarely straggles into the plains in the proxi- 

 mate vicinity of hills, but it will be seen from our map that it 

 occurs sparingly in certain localities at low elevations removed 

 from hilly country. There is no doubt that it favours altitudes 

 between about 1,500 and 6,000 feet, and below this it is in my 

 experience a distinctly rare snake. Haly, in his List of Ceylon 

 Snakes in 1886, wrote: "a very common up-country snake. The 

 collection ( Colombo Museum ) possesses no specimen from the 

 low country. " Later, however, in 1891 he records one in the 

 collection from Colombo. Ferguson, writing of the snakes * of 

 Travancore in this Journal, says it is a common snake above an 

 altitude of 1,000 feet. I have had many specimens from the 

 Anamallays at an elevation of 3,500 to 4,000 feet, and I am told 

 by Father Gombert that at Shembaganur in the Palneys it is 

 common at 6,000 feet. I have had it from Kil Kotagiri in the 

 Nilgiris above 5,000 feet. On the Mysore Plateau at about 2,000 

 to 3,000 feet, and at the same altitude on the Western Ghats it is 

 not uncommon. In the Western Himalayas about Kumaon it is 

 quite common, and I have had it from as far West at Bakloh. 

 ( )ne cannot escape the conviction that it must occur in the Eastern 

 Himalayas since a specimen in the Indian Museum is from 

 Samaeniting in the Naga Hills. Assam. If it occurs in the Eastern 

 Hamalaya it must be rare as there is no record, as far as I am 

 aware, from this region. 



It is common in parts of Rajputana notably where the altitude 

 exceeds about 1,500 feet, such places as Mount Abu, Udaipore, 

 Ajmer, and Jeypore, all in or beside the Aravalli Hills. It is 

 noteworthy also that Vizagapatam where Russell got his specimen 

 is close to hills, and Berhampore ( Orissa ) from where I have had 

 a specimen, is only ten miles or so from hills. On the other 

 hand Karachi, Broach, Purneah District, 24 Parganas, and 

 Colombo from whence there are records, cannot be said to be near 

 hills. 



A detailed enumeration of its known localities is given in our 

 map. 



Geographical distributwn. — Ceylon, Hills of Peninsula India, 

 Sind, Rajpootana, Western Hamala} r as, Bengal, East of Purneah, 

 Naga Hills, Assam. 



* Vol. x., p. 72. 



