THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 39 



(b) English. — For want of a better title, and owing to the 

 difficulty of finding anything distinctive in this member of a large 

 genus, I propose to associate Gray's name with it. 



(c) Vernacular. — According to Captain Shakespeare who sent 7 

 young specimens to our Society's collection from Koweit on the 

 Persian Gulf it is called " dawaib-al-khail " in Arabia. 



Identification. — The scale rows two headslengths behind the 

 head are 19, in midbody 19, and two headslengths before the vent 

 15, or more commonly 13. The anal shield is divided. The 

 supralabials are 9 ; the 4th divided and the 4th, 5th and 6th touching 

 the eye (less commonly they are 8 ; the 3rd divided and the 3rd, 4th 

 and 5th touching the eye). 



There are only about 1 2 others of our Indian snakes with the 

 scale rows as given above. 6 of these have an entire anal shield, and 

 none have the condition of the supralabials peculiar to this species. 

 The divided 3rd or 4th supralabial must be carefully looked for 

 (see figure). 



General characters. — This is a remarkably graceful species, the 

 body is smooth on the surface, round, slender and elongate, and the 

 tail is unusually long, and tapering accounting for more than one- 

 fourth the total length. The head is moderately narrow, and the 

 snout moderate in length, and obtuseness. The nostril occupies 

 about the upper two-thirds of the suture between the nasal shields. 

 The e}^e of medium size has the pupillary border of the iris fine 

 specked with gold, so that the round shape of the pupil is clear 

 evident in life. A neck is moderately evident. The attenuation of 

 the body is very gradual, and continues so insidiously that the origin 

 of the tail is barely if at all indicated. The belly is slightly angula- 

 ted on each side. 



Colour and varieties. — The variety typica of Gray, and far 

 the commonest variety is very variable in its prevailing tones and 

 markings. It may be dirty yellowish, olive-greenish, olive-brownish, 

 stone coloured, or greyish. The posterior part of the body for a 

 variable length, and the tail are uniformly coloured. Anteriorly the 

 body is variously marked with spots, or crossbars, or both. A 

 common form is shown in our plate where crossbars are evident, 

 alternating with a single series of largish costal spots. These bars 

 may be as long as the intervals, as in our plate, or only half the 

 length. In another very common form there are no crossbars, but 

 5 or 6 rows of small spots arranged quincuncially. In some 3 series 

 of small spots alternate with one another each side, and the upper- 

 most with a series of narrow crossbars. The head partakes of the 

 prevalent dorsal hue, and exhibits a blackish spot on the lore, a 

 blackish oblique stripe below the eye, another on the temporal region 

 to the gape, a band between the eyes, and varioas marks on the occi- 

 put. A crossbar, or a single longitudinal stripe, or twin stripes may 



