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



Palatine. — Very short, about one quarter the pterygoid in length, 

 highly compressed; not extending forwards as far as the maxilla? ; a 

 short edentulous space in front, and a longer space behind ; supports 

 3 or 4 subequal well developed teeth. Pterygoid. — Highly com- 

 pressed; from 6 to 9 subequal well developed teeth anteriorly : more 

 than half its length edentulous behind. Mandibular. — Dentary bone 

 about half the length of the articular ; supports ]1 teeth, gradually 

 reducing in length behind. 



The family Colubridoe according to the present accepted scheme of 

 classification is divided into three large groups or " Series " based 

 upon the absence, presence, and situation of grooved or tubular teeth 

 (fangs). The aglypha (Greek " a " without and " glypho " I carve) 

 are characterised by the absence of " carved " or grooved teeth. 

 The opisthoglypha (Greek " opisthe " behind), has grooved fangs fixed 

 in the posterior extremity of the maxilla or upper jaw, and the pro- 

 teroglypha (Greek "proteros" before), has tubular fangs situated in the 

 front of the maxilla. The fact that the fangs in the opisthoglypha are 

 grooved, and those in the proteroglypha tubular has never yet been 

 actually stated in works on ophiology,and in perusing the standard work 

 on the subject, viz,, the Catalogue of the snakes in the British Museum 

 by Mr. Bouienger one must of a necessity be misled, for the author re- 

 peatedly, if not invariably, speaks of grooved fangs in describing the 

 dentition of the proteroglypha. As a matter of fact all the fangs in 

 the snakes of this series are tubular, though there is always a very 

 obvious seam on the anterior face of the fang where the circumflexed 

 walls have united. The subject .of this paper belongs to the opistho- 

 glyphous series of colubrines, as will be seen on referring to the figure of 

 the maxillary dentition. (See page 79). 



This series is divided into three sub-families Homalopsincv, Dipsado- 

 morphince and Elachistodontince , the species of which are all harmless 

 to men. Psammodynastes is one of the 69 genera into which the 

 second of these sub-families is further divided. 



PS AMMO D YNASTES P UL VER U LENT US. 

 The Mock Viper. 



History. — This snake was first described by Boie in 1827, and for 

 many years was classified as a Psammophis. In 1858 Gunther 



