«62 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVII. 



follows : — " The spots are, as it were, dissolved into a network of black 

 lines with intermixed white dots." 



( f ) Obscurus. — Obscurely spotted , dappled, or chequered with sombre 

 hues. Blanford * thus describes a specimen I refer to this type : "Almost 

 uniform brown, having the dark spots nearly quite obsolete." I feel 

 disposed, too, to place Giinther's f fiavipunctata here. It is a common 

 form. 



(g) Mortuarius (Daudin). — Quincuncially marked with sagittate 

 black and cinereous grey marks. I am not sure that I have seen this 

 type, but Russell J figures a good illustration. 



(h) Umbratus (Daudin). — Heavily blotched with black without 

 quincuncial arrangement. Daudin thus describes it : — " Colare atro 

 maculis dorsalibus obsolete flavescentibus." With this I would include 

 the same author's dora. I see no difference between them. Russell § 

 gives three good examples of the type. Blanford H alludes to a female 

 he captured in the Central Provinces which was evidently of this variety. 

 I think Giinther's || variety 7 from Ceylon should be included here, as it 

 only differs in the tendency to form transverse bands. The type is a 

 common one. 



(i) Ornata. — Specked, spotted, or blotched with pink, orange, or 

 vermilion. A good example is shown in Fig. 3 of our plate. Giinther** 

 mentions it as his variety a . Nicholson ft alludes to it as his variety 

 b. Anderson % % mentions it from Yunnan. Stoliczka §§ refers to it too, 

 as does also Theobald fill. Giinther says it occurs in almost every part 

 of India, but 1 think I have only met with it on the Malabar Coast and 

 in Burma, and Theobald remarks that the bright colouring, he thinks, is 

 more developed in Burmese specimens than in these from Bengal. I 

 obtained a modified example in Cannanore which demands special 

 remark as the adornment was not in spots. The specimen was uniform 



* Jourl,, Asiat. Soc., Bengal, Vol. XXXIX, p. 191. 



t Loc. cit., p. 270. 



% Loc. cit., Plate XXVIII, Vo!. I. 



§ Loc. cit., Plates III, V and XIV, Vol. II. 



If Jourl., Asiat. Soc., Bengal, Vol. XXXIX, p. 371 



|| Loc. cit , p. 260. 



** Loc. cit , p. 259 



tt Indian Snakes, p. 90. 



XX Ann. Zool. Yunnan, p. 821. 



§§ Jourl., Asiat. Soc., Bengal, Vol. XL, p. 431. 



Iff Cat., Rept., Brit. Burma, 1868, p. 47. 



