104 



Malay Peninsula; Siam; Cochin China; Sikkim; China; E. 

 Himalayas. 



Note. In the limestone caves of the Malay Peninsula this 

 snake lives in the dark feeding on bats. There it is of a much 

 paler colour, without the dark network, the lower parts whitish ; 

 head bluish-grey; sides with a purplish band, getting black 

 towards the tail. 



7. Coluber oxycephalus Boie. 



Coluber oxycephalus^ Boie, Isis, 1827, p. 537. 



Coluber oxycephalus, Boulenger, Cat. Sn. II 1894, p. 56 (s. syn.). 

 Gonyosoma oxycephala, Barbour, Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harv. Coll. XLIV 

 1912, p. 1 1 6. 



Snout long, projecting; rostral about as broad as deep, 

 visible from above; internasals shorter than the praefrontals, 



Fig. 43. Coluber oxycephalus Boie X % Side view of head. 



which are large ; frontal as long as its distance from the rostral 

 or the tip of the snout, shorter than the parietals; loreal long; 

 praeocular large, in contact with the frontal; two postoculars; 



