THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 755 



frontal, Internasals. — A pair, the suture between them equal to, or 

 rather less than that between the preefrontal fellows, less than 

 half the internaso-prcefrontal sutxires. Prcefrontals — A pair, the suture 

 between them less than (about half) the prsefronto-frontal sutures, 

 touching the internasal, postnasal, loreal, preeocular and siipraocular. 



Frontal. — Touches 6 shields, the sutures subequal, or supraoculars 

 rather longest. Suircaoculars. — Length less than the frontal, breadth 

 about half the frontal opposite the middle of the eyes. Loreal- — 

 Single, very small, about half the length of the nasals, rarely absent. 

 Frteocular. — One, not reaching the top of the head. Postoculars. — Two 

 Temporal — One. Supralabials. — 7, the 3rd and 4th touching the eye. 

 Infralabials — 5, the 5th largest, and in contact with two scales 

 behind ; 4th and 5th touching the posterior sublinguals. Stohlin- 

 guals. — Two pairs ; the anterior rather larger. Costals. — Two 

 headslengths behind the head 17, midbody 17, two headslengths 

 before the vent 15. The reduction of rows is caused by a dis- 

 appearance of the 4th above the ventrals, which is usually absorbed 

 into the 3rd (more rarely the 5th). Apical pits and keels absent. 



Ventrals. — These vary Avith the sex. In the c? 170 to 186, in the 

 2 180 to 199; somewhat angulate laterally. Anal — Divided. Sub- 

 caudals — Divided, varying in number with sex. In the c? 48 to 59, 

 in the $ 41 to 50. 



Anomalies. — Sometimes a fragment is detached from the parietal 

 to form a pseudo-temporal. The loreal is rarely absent. In 

 one instance where I found it so the prsefrontal touched the 2nd 

 and 3rd supralabials. It is not very uniTSual to find the 6th 

 supralabial failing to come to the labial margin, but wedged between 

 the 5th and 7th shields (see figure B (a) of our Diagram). I have 

 once seen the 6th and 7th supralabials completely confluent. Only 

 4 infralabials occur somewhat commonly. I have seen one specimen 

 with the anal entire, and another in which the 4th, 6th and 7th 

 subcaudals were entire. 



Fentition.^^ — The maxilla supports from 8 to 11 teeth markedl}^ 

 syncranterian in type, the posterior especially being highly com- 

 pressed and bladelike. There is an edentulous space in front that 

 would accommodate 3 or 4 teeth. T^he palatine has an edentulous 

 space anteriorly, that might take two teeth, and a much longer 

 space posteriorly. In the middle there are from 3 to 6 teeth. The 

 p)terygoicl has an edentulous space in front behind which are from 6 

 to 18 teeth (6 to 11 in Almora specimens, and 15 to 18 in a 

 Fyzabad example). The mandibular array number 13 to 14, which 

 are small and subequal. 



Our plate is good. Many specimens, however, show the bars even 

 more clearly outlined with yellow, and it is not u.sual for the bars 

 to pass as low in the flanks before disintegrating. The first head 

 • Taken from 3 skulls in my collection. 



