POPULAR TREATISE ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 13 



The body is very stout, heavy, and muscular. Its transverse 

 diameter very appreciably exceeds the vertical, and there is a groove 

 along the spine. It is covered with numerous, small, smooth or 

 nearly smooth scales. The claw-like termination of the rudimentary 

 limb is situated as in IE. conicus. The head is covered with scales 

 little larger than those on the back. The broad muzzle is 

 furnished with an angular horizontal ridge with which the creature 

 butrows, and this ridge is more pronounced in this than in any 

 other species of the genus. The upper jaw projects bej-ond the 

 chin to an extent equal to the diameter of the eye. The eve is 

 very small, its diameter being about one-third the length of the 

 snout. The piipil is vertically elliptical, and the iris is spotted 

 with ruddy gold. The nostril is slit-like, and is placed between 

 two enlarged shields rather high on the snout. The tongue is 

 yellowish basally, black at the tips. Beneath the chin there is a 

 longitudinal furrow (the mental groove). The tail is short and 

 stumpy, its extremity rounded, and general form very similar to 

 that of the head, hence the almost universal belief among natives 

 that the snake is two-headed. Indian jugglers, who so frequentljr 

 have this snake among their stock in trade sometimes improve 

 upon nature, and mutilate this stumpy appendage, making marks 

 to suggest eyes, and cutting a transverse incision at the extremity 

 which leaves a scar suggesting a mouth. The public, who for the 

 most part prefer to keep a respectful distance from any snake, fall 

 easy victims to their own credulity, and too often go away under 

 the firm conviction that they have seen a head at each extremity. 



Colour. — The adult Specimens I have seen have been either 

 uniformly coloured, of a lightish brown, ruddy-brown, or dark 

 olivaceous-brown, or marked with fine dark reticulations arranged 

 so as to form cross bars. The cross bars are ill defined, but when 

 present at all most conspicuous posteriorly, and on the tail especiall}^. 

 Many specimens in life are so sullied with earth adhering to their 

 scales, that any marks are obscured till the snake is washed. 

 Immersion in spirit makes any marks very apparent. The belly is 

 of a lighter shade than the back, and often more or less mottled 

 with blackish. 



The young are very different, so much so that many peox^le M'ho 



