324 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol.. XV 11. 



to the nostril, and is greater than its distance to the edge of the lip; 2 



rows of scales between it and the 

 supralabials. Supralabials. — The 

 4th is the largest of the series 

 (rarely the 3rd). Sublinguals 

 touch 3 or 4 infralabials, and 2 

 small scales behind. Tnfralabials 

 4 (rarely 3), the 4th touching 

 2 scales behind. Scales in mid- 

 body 27 to 37. Venlrah not 

 ridged laterally. Subcaudals 

 undivided. During life its 

 peculiar habit of throwing its 

 body into a double coil, inflating 

 itself, and then rubbing one coil 

 against the other so as to pro- 

 duce a sound closely resembling- 

 hissing, will in itself proclaim 

 its identity. 



Distribution.— It o c c u r s 

 throughout a large area of the 

 Indian Peninsula from Cape 

 Coinorin to the Himalayas, but 

 being a desert form preferring 

 an arid sandy soil, it is distri- 

 buted chiefly in isolated patches 

 where it is frequently very com- 

 mon. Jerdon remarks it is 

 I have found it especially so about 



Sub 



Fig. 36.— Echis cariuata (X20- 

 common throughout the Carnatic. 



Trichinopoly. I believe it does not occur in the narrow tract between 

 the Western Ghats and the Malabar Coast, nor in Ceylon. To the 

 North-East its limits are not exactly known ; if it occurs in Bengal 

 it is scarce. To the North-West it extends through Bajpootana, 

 the Punjab, Sind and Baluchistan to Transcaucasia, and is extremely 

 abundant in these parts. Some idea of* its prodigious numbers was 

 furnished by Vidal.* He says that in the Ratnagiri District (Kanara) 

 alone during 6 years Government rewards were paid on an average 

 * -Journal.. Pombay Natura' History Soc., Vol. V., p. ,04. 



