Earth- Snahes of India and Ceylon. 27 



golden colour, brighter beneath ; the scales edged with violet, 

 with or without a few irregular narrow violet- black cross bars 

 along the back ; the belly much ornamented with broad violet- 

 black cross bars, sometimes confluent ; tail beneath with a 

 violet-black blotcli. 



Hab. The Wynad (in Malabar), on the Chambra moun- 

 tain. Only two examples were secured, and it has not been 

 found elsewhere. One was at 6000 feet and the other at 

 4500, both in heavy forest, under old logs or stones ; it is 

 one of the most beautiful of the tribe, but the very brilliant 

 golden colour soon fades in spirits. 



Plectrurus canartcus. 



Silyhura canarica, Bedd. Madras Journ. of Med. Science, 1870. 

 Plectrurus canartcus, Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. March 16, 1875, p. 229. 



Snout obtuse ; rostral small, pointed behind and produced 

 back, but not separating the nasals ; vertical four-sided, pro- 

 duced back ; no supraorbital. Eye in the front part of the 

 ocular, but well within the margin ; tail compressed ; the 

 terminal scute with two single superposed points ; the caudal 

 scales with 3-5 keels, or nearly quite smooth, the traces of 

 keels being very faint or only on a few of the final scales ; 

 no chin-shields between the first pair of lower labials and the 

 ventrals ; scales in 15 rows round the middle of the body ; 

 ventrals not quite twice as large as the scales of the adjoining 

 series, from 176 in the males to 188 in the females ; subcaudals 

 6 pairs in the females, 11 or 12 pairs in the males. Length 

 of adults up to about 16 inches, with a girth of 1^ inch. 

 Brownish violet, very iridescent, each scale more or less 

 blotched with yellow, often the anterior portion of the trunk 

 variously streaked and blotched with yellow ; a yellow band 

 along each side of the tail and along the upper and lower 

 labials. 



Hab. South Canara ; common on the Kudra Mukh, a 

 mountain on the ghats near Mangalore, at a elevation of about 

 6000 feet ; not met with elsewhere. 



Mr. Theobald, in his ' Catalogue of Indian Reptiles,' de- 

 scribes a sixth species of Plectrurus as follows. Tliis I have 

 not seen. 



Plectrurus scabricauda. 



Scales in 15 rows; eye between 4 shields, frontal, super- 

 ciliary, postocular, and third labial ; nasals large ; caudals 

 8 pairs ; all the scales surrounding the tail and a few of the 



