1010 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



little, and " Nalla wahlagillee pam." In Mysore it is known by 

 the Canarese name " Barmnya. " 



General characters. — The head is chiefly remarkable for its short, 

 a,nd rather pointed mtizzle. The shields are glossy. The nostril 

 is slit-like and placed rather high, distinctly approaching the type 

 seen in the true water snakes of the Family Ilomalojisince . 

 It occupies about half the depth of the nasal shield, which is 

 ■divided below it by a suture running to the 1st supralabial. The 

 ■eye is lateral in its setting, rather small, the pupil round, and the 

 iris speckled throughout wdth gold. The commissure of the mouth 

 viewed in profile is seen to take a sudden bend upwards behind 

 the eye. The tongue is plum-coloured. The neck is not ver}^ 

 ■evident. The body is rather stout for the length of the snake, and 

 the scales on the back are sharply ridged as in other Keelbacks. 

 The tail is long, its relative length being nearly one-third the total 

 length in males, but nearer one-fourth in females. 



Dimensions. — My largest specimen is a $ measuring 2 feet 10 j 

 inches. Females attain a greater length than males, and I have 

 had 7 measuring over 2 feet, but never a c? reaching this length. 

 The average length of my 7 largest females is 2 feet 4|- inches and 

 that for my 7 largest males only 1 foot 10 inches. 



Identification. — In colouring and general appearance it may be 

 very easily confused with the water snake HypsirJiina enhydris, but 

 bears a still more striking resemblance to Rhabdops hicolor. It is 

 rather remarkable too that all these three snakes possess but a 

 single internasal shield, a rare feature in lepidosis. If the lepidosis 

 is studied its identification from all Indian snakes is easy. 

 Three characters must coexist, and these are (1) a single internasal, 

 (2) 19 costal rows in midbody, and 17 at a point two headslengths 

 before the vent, and (3) 8 or 9 supralabials. The combination of 

 the 1st and 2nd of these is only seen in two other Indian snakes, 

 viz., Cantoria violojcea and Hypsirliina plumhea which, haxe respect- 

 ively but 4 and o supralabials. 



Colour. — Though Boulenger says it is dorsally olive-brown, 

 all the many specimens I have seen in life have been olive-green. 

 This hue is uniform on the upper parts of the head, bod}* and tail 

 in adults, and abruptly ceases in the middle of the penultimate 



