Earth- Snakes of India and Ceylon. 21 



terminal scute small, bicuspid or square at the end, the cau lal 

 scales rather strongly 2-5-keeled ; no chin-shields between the 

 first pair of labials and the ventrals ; scales in 17 rows round 

 the middle of the body ; ventrals nearly tvvice as large as the 

 scales of the adjoining series, 147 to 189, witliout reference to 

 sex ; subcaudals about 10 pairs in the males and 6 in the 

 females. Length about 10-12 inches, with a girth of about 

 1 inch. Colour generally uniform brown, with a yellowish 

 line along each side of the neck ; anal region with a broad 

 yellow band, and a more or less perfect lateral yellow band 

 along each side of the tail excurrent from the cross band of 

 the anal region; belly often somewhat blotched with yellow; 

 sometimes the colour of the body is almost black with two 

 yellow spots on each scale, or brown with similar spots {punc- 

 tata of Giintlier), but the markings about the tail are always 

 more or less present. 



Hah. This is the commonest Uropelt in Southern India, 

 and has by tar the widest geographical range, being, I believe, 

 the only one found in the mountains of the eastern coast 

 (Cuddapa, Kurnool, and Vizagapatain) ; it is also common 

 on the hills in the Salem district, on the Mysore tableland, 

 and in all the western-coast mountains from North Canara 

 southwards. 



Silyhura Beddomeiwas distinguished by Giintlier as having 

 a more pointed snout j and S.punctataivom Beddomei as, having 

 fewer ventrals as well as being spotted ; but when collecting 

 many specimens in India I could never satisfactorily distin- 

 guish between them. Of the specimens in the British Museum 

 1 find three specimens of S. ElUot'd collected by myself in 

 North Canara, in which two have the rostral rather pointed 

 (ventrals 148 and 178), the other the rostral obtuse (ventrals 

 153). Two males from Vizagapatam mountains have 10 and 

 9 subcaudals and 168 and 176 ventrals, and a female has 6 

 subcaudals and 178 ventrals. The specimens labelled Bed- 

 c?omez have the rostral pointed (ventrals 178, 181, and 189), but 

 the coloration exactlj the same as in 8. Elliotii. In 8. punctata 

 the rostral is always more or less pointed, though sometimes 

 only very slightly, and the ventrals vary from 147 to 1 73, viz. 

 147 and 153 in two examples from the Pulney hills, 153 in 

 one from the Anamaliays, 173 in a female from Jey pore (near 

 Vizagapatam), in which the rostral is much pointed and all 

 but separating the nasals, and 169 in a male (11 subcaudals) 

 from the same hills, whereas another from the adjacent hills 

 of Golcoondah has only 153. The correct spelling is Elliotii, 

 not Elliotti, as the species is named after Sir Walter JKUiot, 

 who first sent it home to the British Museum. 



