40 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIII. 



be present on the nape. These very variable marks are obscure, or 

 more or less obsolescent in some specimens especialty old ones but 

 are quite conspicuous in the young. In a large number of examples 

 there is a conspicuous, white, or buff zone around the eye. The 

 belly in life is saffron yellow, or a paler shade, sometimes merging 

 to pinkish posteriorly, or exhibiting a pinkish suffusion laterally. A 

 more or less irregular series of black spots occurs at the edges of the 

 ventrals bej'ond their angulation. 



In the specimens I saw in life in Chitral the skin was dun 

 coloured, and the scales in the anterior part of the bod} r were black 

 on their basal margins and pale yellowish or whitish on their apical 

 margins where overlapped. This produced a beautiful variegation 

 chiefly visible when the snake inflated itself under excitement. 

 This variety is the prevailing one in India, in Chitral, Sind, Balu- 

 chistan, Persia, Arabia, and N. W. Africa. 



Variety rhodorliachis (Jan) (From the Greek " rhodos," arose 

 and " rachis," the spine.) This variety which is far less abundant 

 than 1 1/ pica is characterised by a reddish stripe down the spine 

 which in some specimens is a brilliant vermillion, in others a vivid 

 rose, and in others a brownish, or rusty red. It may involve from 

 3 to 5 scales in the breadth of the snake, and commencing at the 

 nape may extend to the tail tip, or end at the vent, or sometimes 

 before midbod} r . In other respects this form is marked as in 

 typica, but I think all the specimens I have seen showed the 

 quincunciate arrangement of small spots, and none an}- crossbars. 

 I have seen the red spinal stripe very limited in extent, and but 

 faintly indicated, and such specimens are completely intermediate 

 between the forms ti/pica and rhodorhachis. 



There are specimens in the British Museum from Persia, and 1 

 have seen specimens from Chitral and from Aden Hinterland 

 (Dthalla). 



Variety subnigra (Boettger) uniform slatish in the anterior part of 

 body, merging to purplish brown posteriorly. A narrow blackish 

 mesial line on the neck expanding gradually and merging to 

 purplish-brown so as to suffuse the entire dorsum. A few black 

 spots costally. Head olive-greyish. Belly yellow beneath the neck, 

 merging to purplish-brown behind, and with the usual black spots 

 at the sides of the ventrals. Described by Boettger from an example 

 from Somaliland, also recorded by Boulenger from the Abian 

 Country, Arabia. 



I have seen a uniformally blackish specimen from the Aden 

 Hintei'land (Dthalla) which I considered a melanotic example. 

 (Ventrals 231, subcaudals 138). 



Dimensions. — Adults usually measure from three to four feet. The 

 largest specimen I have seen which had its tail slightly imperfect 

 was a <$ which taped four feet, and half an inch in the fresh state. 



