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



In one specimen the 10th row above the ventrals tlivided, and fused 

 several times in the anterior two-fifths of the body, the scales being there- 

 fore in 23 rows in places. I have noted the same thing once before in a 

 specimen (No. 4609) in the Indian Museum, the 10th row again dividing at 

 least once, the resulting rows reuniting later. 



The young are especially handsome, with their very conspicuous, large, 

 chocolate, or black spots in three series. These, and other markings 

 become much less distinct with age, in fact may become very much 

 obscured. 



Several specimens reached me alive. I found them restless, active, and 

 wary creatures, but playing with them cautiously none ever attempted to 

 bite me. 



In life the iris is speckled with gold, and exhibits a narrow orbit of gold 

 around the pupil wdaich is a horizontal ellipse in shape rather than 

 a circle. 



I prepared two skulls, and the dentition is as follows : — Maxillary — 13 

 teeth gradually increasing in length from before backwards ; followed by a 

 gap that would accommodate one tooth, behind which are two enlarged^ 

 and obliquely set teeth about one-fourth longer than the immediately 

 preceding. Palatine — 9, very slightly reducing in length anteriorly and 

 posteriorly. Pteri/yoid — 14 to 19, gradually decreasing in length from before 

 backwards. Mandibular — 16 to 19, reducing in length anteriorly and 

 posteriorly. I may mention here that nearly four years ago I received a 

 fragment of a skin of this snake from Mr. (now Captain) C. H. Whitehead 

 from near the Peiwar Kotal in the Kurram Valley, N.-W. Frontier, circa 

 .7,000 feet. Mr. Whitehead told me he found fragments of a mutilated 

 snake in the nest of a kite (Milvus govinda), and sent me about three 

 inches of the skin. I wrote at the time that it was part of a snake quite 

 unfamiliar to me which I thought would prove to be a species of Zameni^. 

 The scale rows in the fragment counted 17 and 15. I pasted this fragment 

 into my note-book, and recognised the first ravergieri I saw in Chitral as 

 the same snake. 



Zamenis diadema (Schlegel). 



I think this is the commonest snake in Chitral at elevations up to about 

 4,000 to 5,000 feet. Writing recently on the snakes in the Quetta Museum, 

 I commented upon at least three varieties of this snake. In Chitral I only 

 saw one variety, viz., typica, that ornamented with large brownish-black or 



