4 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



pupil is vertically elliptical, and its iris beautifully speckled witb 

 gold. The nostril is slitlike, and placed high on the snout. The 

 tongue is pale at the base, but blackish at the tips. Ther' 

 tail is short, and tapers very rapidly so that it is conical in 

 shape. It is even rougher above than the hinder part of the ' 

 bod}^. 



Golouration. — The under parts are buff, uniform, or with but little 

 trace of mottling. In the flanks there is a mottling of bro^^'n,. 

 sometimes of a light shade, sometimes as deep as chocolate. At 

 first very fine this mottling becomes coarser as it ascends the flanks,. 

 and then vertical bars of the ground colour pass up to the spine. 

 These bars are miich narrower than the intervals. When they meet 

 over the back large somewhat irregularly squarish blotches are 

 formed which proceed from the nape to the tail tip. More often the 

 bars of the two sides alternate, and an irregular dark patchy 

 confluent pattern results. The head is light above with sometimes 

 dark speckling especiallj^ about the lips, and a dark irregular stripe 

 passes from the eye to the gape. Dr. Annandale*', who captured a 

 mother and young, says the latter are more brilliantly coloured. 



Identification. — Eussell's earth snake is very like Linne's earth 

 snake (^jaculus), so much so that I have no doubt the two have 

 been confused repeatedlj^ in the Punjab where they are associated. 

 It was only in 1909 in this journal that I reported the occurrence 

 of jaculus for the first time within Indian limits, the specimen 

 being captured at Jhelum. Whether it is as rare as this single 

 record might lead one to siippose, remains to be seen. 



The dual association of small head scales, with ventrals so nar- 

 row that they are only twice or little more than twice the breadth 

 of the last costal row, sufiices to pronounce the snake an Eri/x.. 

 Gonicus differs from the other two Indian species (johni and jamlus) 

 in having no groove beneath the chin, and no angular transverse 

 ridge on the rostral shield, so that the identification is extremely 

 easy. A similar specimen with a conical tail, mental groove, and 

 angular ridge on the rostral would prove to he jacuhts. 



Dimensions. — The largest specimen I know of was a gravid 2 



''■' Mem. As Soc, Ben<-aL Vol. 1. 10, p. 198. 



