750 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXII. 



like character, and peculiar shape of the posterior maxillary teeth in 

 all the species of Simotes and Oligodon. 



(c) Vernacular. — Rnssell says it is called " katla tntta" in the 

 Vizagapatam District, and Mr. Miiir tells me that in Bengal 

 around Kalna it is called " sanka." I have heard no special native 

 names for it myself. 



Identification.^— It is not an easy matter to distinguish this from 

 some other kukri snakes to which it loears considerable resemblance 

 in colour and markings. It is safer to identify the snake by 

 attention to scale characters ovly. The brevity of the sutures 

 between the internasal and prsefrontal fellows, are, I think, if taken 

 together, sufficient to establish the genus as either Simotes or 

 Oligodon. The internasal suture is half or less than half the internaso- 

 prasfrontal suture, and the preefrontal distinctly less and often but 

 half the preefronto-frontal suture. In order to distinguish arnensis 

 from the other kukri snakes the following points must co-exist : — 

 (1) a divided anal shield, (2) presence of loreal, (3) 7 supralabials, 

 and (4) more than 40 subcaudals, of course taking care to see that 

 the tail is not imperfect. 



Perhaps an easier way of putting the matter is this. Any snake 

 found in the plains of Peninsula India (see map of distribution) 

 which has 1 7 scale rows anteriorly and in midbody, and only 

 15 at a point two headslengths before the vent, together 

 with only 4 or 5 infralabials will almost for certain prove to 

 be arnensis. This remark, though will not apply to the hills for 

 the following species combining the same characters, may be asso- 

 ciated with arnensis in certain upland localities. In the Eastern 

 Himalayas, including of course Nepal, Oligodon erytlirog aster occurs, 

 and in the South Indian Hills Simotes beddomei, Oligodon venustus 

 0. travancoricus, and 0. ajfinis. In these Hills, and their immediate- 

 ly adjacent low country recoiirse must be had to the method of 

 identification first indicated. 



General characters. — The body is cylindrical, rather short, 

 smooth, and of even calibre throughout. A neck is slightly indi- 

 cated behind the slightly expanded jaws. The head is moderately 

 depressed, the snout short, rather blunt, and devoid of any canthus. 

 The nostril is open, and evident, and the eye is of moderate size 

 with round pupil, and an iris of ruddy or brownish gold. The tail 

 is short, somewhat compressed basally, and accounts for about one- 

 sixth to one-seventh the total length of the snake. 



Golouration. — The ground colour is brown of various hues, in- 

 clined sometimes to a ruddy, or a purplish tint. It fades to a more 

 or less degree in the flanks. The back is crossed with black bars 

 which are narrowly, but usually distinctly, oatlined with whitish or 

 pale yellow. They do not reach the ventrals, but break up in the 

 flanks into streaks. They vary somewhat in width, but are, I think, 



