36 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIII. 



into populated areas, and according to Stoliczka has been known to 

 enter houses in Calcutta. 



'Food. — A specimen sent me from Patna had swallowed a rat. 

 Stoliczka, however, remarks that it feeds on frogs and worms. 



Breeding. — Very little is known in this connection. A- speci- 

 men which I took to be a hatchling, measuring 11;^ inches, was 

 captured by me in Fyzabad in the month of July. Mr. D'Abreu 

 told me of a hatchling he obtained in Patna in May. 



Distribution. — Though Jerdon remarks that it is not uncommon in 

 the Carnatic, this has not been my experience. I never obtained 

 one when in residence in Southern India (Trichinopoly, Madras, 

 Berhampore, Cannanore, and Bangalore), and I noticed that in the list 

 of Tranvancore snakes given by Ferguson in this Journal (Vol. X, 

 p. 68, and Vol. XIV, p. 386), this is not mentioned as one of the 58 

 land snakes enumerated. In my whole Indian career (19 years), I 

 have had one specimen brought to me, viz., in Fyzabad, and only 

 one sent to me for identification, except the examples that have 

 reached me from our Secretary from around Bombay. It is poorly 

 represented in numbei's in both the British and Indian Museums. 

 The fact, however, that Nicholson supports Jerdon in saying that it 

 is fairly common in Mysore; and Mr. Millard tells me it is quite a 

 common snake in the Konkan, added to the fact that it is often 

 mistaken for the cobra in the Konkan, and has a fairly wide 

 distribution in Peninsula India justifies its inclusion in these papers. 

 It occurs in Northern Ceylon. In India it is found from Cape 

 Comorin to the base of the Himalayas, excepting, perhaps, Travan- 

 core. It does not extend as far as Kajputana and the Punjab on 

 the north-west, nor further east than Calcutta. I have elsewhere* 

 given good reasons for doubting the accuracy of the locality of 

 Cantor's specimen in the British Museum said to be from the 

 Province Wellesley in the Malay Peninsula. The exact localities 

 known to me are shown in the accompanying map. 



Lepidosis. — Rostral — Touches 6 shields; the rostro-internasal 

 sutures usually greater than the rostro-nasal. Internascds — Two ; the 

 suture between them two-thirds to three-fourths that between the 

 prsef rental fellows, about two-thirds the internaso-prsefrontal suture. 

 Prefrontals. — Two ; the suture between them subequal to the 

 praefronto-frontal sutures ; in contact with internasal, postnasal, loreal, 

 prseocular. Frontal — Touches 8 shields ; the fronto-su;praocular 

 sutures about twice as long as fronto-parietals. 8ti'praoculars — Length 

 subequal to frontal breadth about two-thirds the frontal along a line 

 connecting the centres of the eyes. Nasals — Two ; in contact with 

 the first and second supralabials. Loreal — One. Proioculars — One 

 touching, or almost touching the frontal. Postocidars — Twc 



* Pois. Terr. Snakes, Brit. Ind. Dom. 1908, Footnote, p. 21. 



