ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 947 



lar, supraocular, and frontal. Frontal — Touches 6 shields, the 

 fronto-supraocular sutures rather longer than the rest. Supraocu- 

 lars — About half the breadth, and three-fourths the length of the 

 frontal. Nasals — Quite divided by a nostril that is nearly as deep 

 as these shields ; in contact with the 1st and 2nd only of the 

 supralabial series. Loreal — -Absent. Proeoculars— One. Postocu- 

 lars — Two. Temporals— One,. Sup/ralabials — 7 with the 3rd and 

 4th touching the eye. Infralabials — 4, the 4th much the largest 

 and in contact with 2 scales behind ; the 4th (or 3rd and 4th) 

 touching the posterior sublinguals. Sublinguals — Two subequal 

 pairs. Costals — Two headlengths behind head 15, midbody 15, 

 two headlengths before the vent 15. Smooth with no apical 

 facets. Vertebrals — Enlarged, broader than long, hexagonal. Su- 

 ■praca'itdals — In odd rows with enlarged vertebrals. Ventrals — 200 

 to 234,* rounded. Anal— Entire. Subcaudals —23 to 39, 

 entire. 



Anomalies. — I have once seen the upper postocular confluent 

 with the supraocular, and once two temporals on one side. 



Dentition, j — The maxilla has a pair of tubular fangs placed side 

 by side, behind which are 3 teeth grooved on their outer faces, 

 about one-third the size of fangs. ± Palatine — 11 to 13, subequal, 

 about as large as the postmaxillary, and grooved on their inner 

 faces. Pterygoid — 10 to 12, the anterior as large as the palatine, 

 the posterior slightly diminishing, grooved on their inner faces. 

 Mandibular — 16 to 17, abruptly decreasing in front, and more gra- 

 dually behind, the median about as large as the palatine ; grooved 

 on their outer faces. 



Our coloured plate is good but does not do justice to the glossi- 

 ness of the scales in life. Plate A is taken from a photograph 

 of a specimen in Parel that came from Raipur, C. P. We 

 are indebted to Sub-Assistant Surgeon C. R. Avari for the photo- 

 graph which is a good one. 



* In my Rangoon specimens 208 to 22l, in Assamese 221 to 231. 

 t From i skulls in my collection. 



+ Similar except in the number of the postmaxillary teeth, to those of caeral 

 (See this Journal. Vol, XVIII . figures C and D of Diagram). 



