MARSH HYDRUS. 569 



broad, ovate, somewhat depressed, and laterally 

 compressed ; covered with large scales : tail eleven 

 inches in length, slightly carinated, tapering very 

 gradually, and terminating sharply: head dusky; 

 rest of the animal yellowish brown, with numerous 

 round black spots joined by narrow fillets regu- 

 larly disposed in oblique rows, a few scales of light 

 yellow being interspersed : abdomen yellowish 

 white. Native of India, frequenting wet paddy 

 fields, and commonly reckoned a water-snake : 

 moves swiftly, and carries its head high, with a 

 menacing air, in its progression, but when pro- 

 voked did not either hiss or snap at a stick pre- 

 sented to it : was not provoked to bite a chicken, 

 though pecked several times by the animal : dur- 

 ing the time of this experiment it threw up a 

 pretty large fish, which appeared to have been but 

 a short time in the stomach : is not a poisonous 

 species, the teeth resembling those of other inno- 

 cuous serpents: does not very properly belong to 

 this genus. 



MARSH HYDRUS. 



Hydrus Palustris. H. fusco-flavescens, maculis rkombeis fuscif 

 lineistjiie interjectis, abdomine perlaceo. 



Brownish-yellow Hydrus, with rhomboid brown spots and in- 

 terjected lines, and pearl coloured abdomen. 



Hydrus palustris. Schneid. Amph. p. 24-9. 



Paragoodoo. lluss. Ind. Serp. p. 25. pi. 20. 



ALLIED to the preceding species: length more 

 than two feet : trunk round ; swelling and dimi- 

 v. in. r. IT. 37 



