1036 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



There is no arrangement in the disposition of these dark scales, except in 

 one or two specimens where a congeries of such spots roughly suggests 

 the pattern seen in variety B. The head is sometimes completely dark 

 claret coloured, or there may be blotches of this hue irregularly disposed 

 above. On the occiput and neck the claret hue merges into a brilliant 

 crimson. 



B. — In this the ground colour is light brown. A dorsal series of large 

 spots of a darker brown pass regularly down the middle of the back, and 

 these spots alternate with those of a lateral series of similar but smaller 

 spots. The head is light brown, with a somewhat irregular disposition of 

 darker spots or mottlings, which oftec form a complete circle on the crown 

 hence the name diadema. There is no crimson cephalic or nuchal adorn- 

 ment. 



C. This variety may be considered a melanoistic form of the last. The 

 specimens are blackish, with the same arrangement of regular spots as the 

 last variety, the spots being of a still blacker hue. In one specimen no 

 such spots could be distinguished, the colour being uniformly black. 



There were many quite juvenile specimens, but it is remarkable that all 

 of these conformed to the type of adults of variety B. I have noted this 

 before in the Punjab where adults of variety A are very common, and it 

 would appear that the colouration and markings may become very markedly 

 modified with age. 



Unlike the preceding three species of this genus the maxillary array of 

 teeth is not interrupted posteriorly, and there are no enlarged posterior 

 teeth, a fact which leads me to think that the genus Zamenis as constitu- 

 ted by Mr. Boulenger needs revision and further subdivision. 

 Lytorhynchus ridgewayi (Boulenger). 



Four specimens from Quetta and Bostan. The ventrals are 182, 170, 

 171 and 172, the anal entire in 8, and dubiously divided in the 4th. 

 The subcauclals are 41, 45, 50 and 51. The costals are normally 19 two 

 heads-lengths behind the head, 19 in mid-body, and 15 two heads-lengths 

 before the anus. In one the 8th and 9th rows above the ventrals repeat- 

 edly fused and divided anteriorly so that the rows were 17 in some places. 

 In another the vertebral, and next scale on the left side blended, and 

 divided repeatedly posteriorly so that the rows were 16 in places. The 

 absorption of rows from 19 to 17, and from 17 to 15 occurs close together 

 and the steps may be intermixed, but usually the vertebral row blends with 

 the next first, and then the 3rd and 4th rows above the ventrals coalesce. 

 The supralabials are 7 or 8, and usually the 3rd and 4th are divided, and 

 touch the eye. On one side in one specimen the 4th and 5th are divided 

 and these only touch the eye. In another the 4th only is divided on one 

 side, and the 4th and 5th touch the eye. In all the specimens there was 

 but one loreal not two as mentioned by Mr. Boulenger (Catalogue Vol. 



