6 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVII. 



(Boulenger). Evenly rounded from side to side and so broad that when 

 the snake is laid on its back, only part of the last dorsal row is visible 

 on each side simultaneously. A nal usually divided. Subcaudals 85 — 50 

 (Boulenger) are in pairs. Dentition. The maxillary supports 12 — 13 

 small teeth anteriorly which are succeeded after an interval by a pair 

 of large teeth behind. Mandibular teeth subequal (Boulenger). 



The grass-green snakes that inhabit India and its Dependencies are 

 thirteen in number. Three of the commonest of these have been dis- 

 cussed, and figured in this, and a preceding paper. A few remarks will 

 now be made about the remainder so as to facilitate their recognition. 



Three of this number are pit-vipers and differ from, all the rest in 

 having aloreal pit, a vertical pupil, no labial touching the eye, and only 

 one pair of sublingual shields which touch 8 infralabials. In two of 

 these (viz., Purpureomaculatus and Gramineus) the head is covered in 

 front with small scales about the same size as those on the body and 

 in the third (Macrolepis, see Fig. 13) the enlarged shields are a modifica- 

 tion of the arrangement normally S3en in colubrine snakes. Should, 

 however, a specimen be brought with the head so mutilated that none 

 of these characters can be discerned, the following additional points 

 mentioned with each will differentiate them. 



(1) Lachesis gramineus has been described in a preceding paper. 

 The arrangement of the dorsal scales which number 21 normally (rarely 

 19) in the anterior and middle parts of the body, and 15 in the pos- 

 terior part of the body will suilice to distinguish this from the rest. 



(2) Lachesis purpureomaculatus. — The green variety of this snake 

 (bicolor) is extremely like gramineus, in fact it is probable the two 

 have been frequently confounded. The arrangement of the dorsal scales 

 which number normally 25 (rarely 23 or 27) in the anterior and 

 middle parts of the body, and 19 in the posterior part will distinguish 

 this from the rest. This snake is as far as I know similar to the last in 

 habits, rarely exceeds three feet in length, and within our limits has 

 been recorded from the Himalayas, Bengal, Assam and Burma. 



(3) Lachesis macrolepis. — In this the scales number 18-15 anterior- 

 ly, 14-12 in mid-body, and 11-10 posteriorly. The ultimate (or lowest) 

 row is much the smallest, and this feature alone will, I believe, distinguish 

 this from every other snake in India. It is arboreal in habit, grows to 

 two feet, and inhabits hills in Travancore (Ferguson), Malabar, and S. 

 India, 2,<?,, Anamallays and Pulneys. 



