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



Dark blacJcish-brown variety. 



No. inches. Ventrals. Caudals. Bands. 



Var. a. 1 32| 198 68 26 



2 ? 196 63 28 



No. 2 is uniform dark brown, witb all tbe scales and angles of tbe 

 ventrals and caudals minutely dotted or speckled with the same 

 colour, with twenty-eight pale brown transverse narrow black- edged 

 bands. The posterior two-thirds of the body, excluding the tail, have 

 the ventrals entirely black, with the exception of a narrow longitudinal 

 line on the keel. The angle, too, of every alternate or third ventral 

 is blacker than the intervening ones. The anterior third of tbe 

 body and the caudals are squarely black-spotted ; but the angles are 

 marked in the same way as the posterior two-thirds. 



No. 4. This specimen is uniform blackish brown, with twenty-seven 

 almost black spots with still darker margins. The first two on the neck 

 are in pairs and side by side, but those behind them are united in 

 figures of eight placed transversely ; they are very indistinct and 

 can only be seen in certain lights. On either side of them there are 

 faint indications of other black spots, the remnants, as it were, of 

 the transverse bands of the other forms. 



The under surface on its two posterior thirds, excluding the tail 

 and anterior third of the body, is deep black, with a white longi- 

 tudinal line along the keel of every alternate or third caudal, the 

 angles of the intermediate ones being entirely black. 



Simotes bicatenatus, Gthr. /. c. pp. 217, 218. 



Nineteen rows of scales. Loreal quadrangular, as high as broad. 

 Two prseoculars, the uppermost much larger than the one below it, 

 and widely separated from the vertical. Two postoculars. Seven 

 or eight upper labials; in the former case the third and fourth entering 

 the orbit, in the latter the fourth and fifth. Temporals 2 + 2, one 

 in contact with the postoculars. Vertical broad, nearly as large as 

 an occipital. Occipitals transversely truncated. Ventral shields 

 distinctly keeled. Ventrals 169-173. Subcaudals 43-63. 



Colour light brown above, with three rather indistinct darker longi- 

 tudinal lines, one along each side of the body on the third and fourth 

 outer series of scales, aud the other along the vertebral line. Head 

 with the markings of the genus. Under surface yellowish, with 

 faint indications in one specimen (Calcutta) of a brown spot near 

 the lateral edge of each ventral, with a few brown scattered spots on 

 the centre of the ventrals and subcaudals posteriorly. In another 

 specimen (Garo Hills), agreeing with the former in all its structural 

 details, the lateral spots on the ventrals are strongly marked on the 

 two anterior thirds of the body, and on the posterior third they are 

 so large and intense as to become confluent. Under surface of tail 

 nearly immaculate. 



The only difference that I can detect between these specimens and 

 Giinther's type of the species is the presence of two anterior tempo- 



