4 JOURNAL, BOMB A Y NA TURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVII. 



similarly to these la4 two under excitement, but the flattening is far 

 less pronounced. Among these may be enumerated the common Pond 

 Snake ( Tropidonotus piscator), the common Buff-stripes or Robed Snake 

 ( Tropidonotus stolatus), and several others of this genus, also Helicops 

 seliistosus, and Pseudoxenodon macrops which last Giinther has figured* 

 so as to emphasise this peculiarity. 



Food. — Both Mr. Phipson and Mr. Kinloch tell me it feeds on toads. 

 Mr. Gray mentions frogs, and says he knew one eat a small earth-snake 

 on one occasion. 



Breeding. — Mr. Phipson tells me it breeds during the S.-W. monsoon 

 about Nasik (Deccan), and produces eggs which he has found, and kept 

 till they hatched out. 



Distribution. — Geographical. — It is found throughout the Peninsula 

 of India, including Ceylon. Its northern boundary may be taken 

 rouohly as the 30th parallel, and its western and eastern limits are 

 comprised roughly behween the 70th and 85th meridians. 



Local and numerical. — It is not nearly so abundant in the plains as 

 in certain uplands, in fact my own experience teaches me to regard it 

 as an uncommon snake in the plains. Russell's work, which may be 

 taken as dealing with a fairly representative collection of the common 

 snakes of India, makes no allusion to this species. Mr. Kinloch and 

 Mr. Gray tell rr.e it is quite a common snake in the Nilgiris (Kotagiri 

 an I Coonoor 5,700-6,000'). Mr. Phipson says it is perhaps the 

 commonest snake about Nasik in the Deccan ( 1,900' ). Col. 

 Light mentions it as fairly common around Poona ( 1,800' ). Nichol- 

 sonf says it is a very common snake about Bangalore (3,000'), and 

 Ferguson mentions it as fairly common in Travancore both on the hills 

 and in the plains. 



Description. — Rostral contact with six shields, of which the anterior 

 nasals form the longest sutures (see Fig. 56). Intemasals a pair. 

 Suture between them subequal to, or rather shorter than the 

 suture between the prefrontal pair, subequal to or rather shorter 

 than the suture between the internasal and prefrontal of each side. 

 Prefrontals a pair. In contact with the internasal, postnasal, 

 loreal, upper preocular, supraocular, and frontal, on each side. 

 Suture between them subequal to or rather less than the suture 



• Rept, Brit. Ind., PI. XXII., C. 

 f Indian Snakes, p. 94. 



