70 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



and it is probable that in the human subject a fatality is unlikely to 

 occur, but it seems strange that we should know so little about 

 the effects of the bite of so common a snake. There must be abund- 

 ant casualties every year in the Himalayas, but so long as people 

 before whom these cases are brought, refrain from publishing details, 

 and omit to refer the offender to some authority for identification, our 

 ignorance of the poison effects will remain what it is.* 



Distribution. — The Himalayas, probably as far as the Indus in the 

 West and the Brahmaputra in the East. The Khasi Hills in Assam 

 is also reported as a habitat, as far as I am aware on the sole authority 

 of Jerdon. I think we should await confirmation of this before 

 accepting it. It is a very easy matter for even the most careful 

 collectors to mix specimens. In at least one instance, viz., Dinodon 

 zeptentrionalis, Jerdon was in doubt as to whether the locality was the 

 Himalayas or Khasi Hills in Assam. I have also shown reason to 

 doubtf the Himalayas as the habitat of the specimens of Trachischium 

 monticola in the British Museum collected by Jerdon, this snake 

 being otherwise only known from the Khasi and neighbouring Assam 

 Hills, and it seems to me possible that in the case of Ancistrodon 

 himalayanus Jerdon's specimens in the British Museum may have 

 come from the Himalayas. 



Lepidosis. — Rostral. — About as high as broad ; in contact with six 

 shields, the anterior nasal sutures being much the longest. Internasals. 

 — A pair ; the suture between them as long or nearly as long as that 

 between the prefrontal fellows, as long or rather shorter than the 

 internaso-prsefrontal sutures. Prefrontals. — A pair; the suture 

 between them subequal to the prsefronto-frontal sutures ; in contact 

 with internasal, supraloreal, uppermost prseocular, supraocular, and 

 frontal. Frontal. — Touches six shields (exclusive of the small scales 

 so often interpolated at the angles of the head shields) ; the fronto- 

 supraocular sutures longest. Supraoculars, — Length and breadth 

 subequal to that of the frontal. Nasal. — Usually incompletely 

 divided by a suture from the nostril to first labial, which, however 

 may be absent ; sometimes an additional suture passes from the nostril 

 to the internasal ; in contact with the 1st only of the supralabial 

 series. Supraloreal. — One, in contact with the internasal. Loreal. — 



*TMs was written before Colonel Fenton's notes which appeared ia our last Jourl., p. 1004. 

 t Bomb. Nat. His. Jourl., Vol. XIX., footnote, page 343. 



