IDG DR. J. ANDERSON ON INDIAN REPTILES. [Feb. 21, 



view the circumstances that all the other colours of this red-backed 

 individual are those of the females of this species, the rufous colora- 

 tion of the dorsal is utterly inadmissible as a specific character, and is 

 due in all likelihood either to a sexual or to some adventitious cause. 



My specimen with the red back measures 2" 11'" ; tail 4" 6'", 

 imperfect. It is a gravid female. 



Jerdon's /. planidorsata, as I have said, is founded on the young 

 of this species, and in all probability on young females ; for in the 

 young males the dorsal crest is indicated, so that the term which he 

 has applied to this supposed species would be inapplicable to them. 

 They, however, have the rows of scales on either side of the dorsal 

 line referred to by Jerdon, a character which is to a certain degree 

 persistent in the adult, but which would be unlikely to catch the eye 

 of the observer unless his attention had clearly been called to it in 

 its much more interrupted character in the young. My specimens 

 agreeing with Jerdon's J. planidorsata were from the same locality 

 as the rest, and were sent as the young. Their heads have the pecu- 

 liar full appearance so characteristic of that part in young Lizards ; and 

 the arrangement of the scales, large and small, and of the almost spiny 

 scales on the nape, are the same as in the adults of J. variegata. 



The females are much more dully coloured than the males ; and 

 even the specimen with the red back and tail has the general snake- 

 hue of the others. 



In one adult male the general colour of the body is light yellow, 

 banded over the back and tail with broad black bars, reticulated on 

 the limbs and sides with black ; head above olive-brown, variegated 

 on the vertex and sides with black. The band along the side of the 

 neck is persistent in all, although not so well marked in the female. 

 Another male with the general colour greenish, but banded and reti- 

 culated as is the previous one. In some specimens there is a distinct 

 tendency to continue the neck-band along the side of the body, 

 which would seem to connect this species with J. swinhonis, with 

 which I am strongly inclined to consider it identical. 



The females are much more darkly and indistinctly marked, and 

 the bands between the black ones on the back are much duller and 

 narrower than in males. 



The molar dentition in the young is yf to }f ; and in the adults 

 I have examined |f . \^. The gular pouch is black. 



There is another species of this genus which I have found in the 

 Botanical Gardens, Calcutta. It is closely allied to J, variegata. 



The Darjeeling specimens are all from an altitude of 3500 to 4500 

 feet. 



Sitana minor, Gthr. I. c. p. 135. 



This species is not uncommon in the Central Provinces. I have 

 received twenty specimens from Udipur, Bilaspur, Nagpur, and Ban- 

 dara ; and in all the hind limb extends to beyond the snout, the fore 

 limb extending to the vent when laid backwards. If the name given 

 to the other species really indicates its habitat, it can hardly be said 

 to inhabit more northern parts of India than the present species. 



