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



everywhere rather too well defined, and the light stripes should 

 be buff, and not greyish-blue. The underparts shown in figs. 8 

 and 9 are misleading, as the colour should be pale yellow or 

 pearly white. 



The expression, and general form is very faithfully depicted. 



Opisthoglyphous colubrines, or snakes which have 

 orooved teeth placed in the back of the maxilla ("opisthe" 

 behind, and " glypho " I carve) are divided into three sub- families : 

 (1) Homalopsince, (2) P/ipsadmnorphince, and (3) Machistodontince. 



Psammophis is one of the 69 genera into which the second sub- 

 family is divided, and includes 17 species. The genus is principally 

 African, no fewer than 1 3 species being peculiar to that Continent. 



Of the 4 species that are known from Indian limits one, viz., 

 schohari extends from North Africa into South-West Asia (Arabia 

 to Sind), one, viz., leithi is strictly speaking Holarctic, but just 

 extends within Tropical limits (United Provinces), the remaining 

 two, viz., longifrons and condanarus are Tropical, the former 

 exclusively so, but the latter extends into the Holarctic area 

 (Western Himalayas, Sind, etc). 



PSAMMOPHIS CONDANARUS (Merrem). 



The Indo-Burmese Sandsnake. 

 Nomenclature — (a) Scientific. — The generic name was introduced 

 by Boie in 1827 and is from the Greek "psammos" sand, and 

 " ophis " snake. The specific name is a latinised version of " con- 

 danarouse" the vernacular name by which it is known according to 

 Russell in Ganjam District. 



(b) English. — I think the best name for it is the Indo-Burmese 

 Sandsnake. 



(c) Vernacular. — The only name I know of is that mentioned 

 by Russell above, the meaning of which I have failed to obtain an} 

 information upon. 



General characters. — It is a graceful snake of rather slender 

 habit. The head is a longish oval with a rounded and somewhat 

 narrow and short snout. The ridge from the eye above the lore is 



