POPULAR TREATISE ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 3 



Bombay as "kakria." Mr. D'Abreu tells me the Hindi name is 

 " thnt-thur-samp " or " snouted snake." In the Punjab, and in 

 Bengal it is often called " do muha "or " two-monthed " (Hindi, 

 and Punjabi), but this is more appropriately the name for ^n/93 

 johni. 



General characters. — It is of a markedly stout habit, the body 

 being short and heavy, and the tail short. The body is broader in 

 its transvei'se direction than its vertical, and stoutest about the 

 middle. It attenuates somewhat, and very gradually in both 

 directions, passing almost insensibly into the head so that there is 

 but slight indication of a neck. It is rough dorsally owing to the 

 keeled condition of the scales, and this roughness becomes more 

 pronou.nced posteriorly. At each side just above the vent is a 

 small curved claw-like process directed downwards in the c? and a 

 small pointed process directed backwards in the $ , which indicate 

 the termination of the rudimentary hind limb. This is far more 

 •developed in males, and is frequently supposed to be the male 

 copulatory organ by those not conversant with ophiology. In 

 females the development of this process is so small that it is usually 

 overlooked* leading to a popular belief that, it is the male only 

 that bears it, hence the idea, no doubt, that it is the male sexual 

 organ. Most of the limb is concealed within the muscular tissues 

 but if dissected out by competent observers, the analogues of many 

 of the bones seen in the limbs of other vertebrates can be traced up 

 to its origin in the rudimentary pulvis. The head is moderately 

 elongate, rounded evenly from side to side, and has a more or less 

 pronounced temporo-occipital eminence, on either side. The snout 

 is long, rounded laterally owing to a complete absence of any 

 canthus I'ostralis, and broadly rounded in front. It overlaps the 

 chin, to an extent often equalling the diametre of the eye and is 

 not provided with the transverse ridge in front, which is seen in 

 both the other Indian representatives of this genus, nor has it the 

 groove beneath the chin, (mental groove) which is characteristic of 

 these two species (jaculus und johni). The eye is very small, its 

 diametre being only about one-third the length of the snout. Its 



* Nicholson (Ind. Snakes, p. 3.) says the ^ alone has them. 



