1872.] StoliczJca, on Sind Bcptiles. 91 



This species is evidently closely allied to the New Guinean H. JBelcherl, 

 differing from it by the smaller number of scales on neck, the hexagonal 

 ones on the body, keeled ventrals, and by its coloration. Another, as re- 

 gards coloration almost identical, species is II. tuherculata, Anderson, 

 (Jom^n. A. S. B,, xl, p. 18), but it has, thirty-eight rows of scales round the 

 neck, two keels in a line on each scale, and several keels on each ventral. 

 The scales on the side of the body are also slightly more elongate, and there 

 exists a noticeable difference in the arrangement of the labials, and the form 

 of the head shields. 



18. Htdeophis CTJETrs, Shaw. (Giinther, Rept. Ind. p. 379). 



Two adult specimens, a male and a female, from near Karachi can not 

 be separated from the above species : 



Total length. Tail. Eows of scales Eound the Scales between angle Scales along Ventrals. 

 inches. inches. round neck, middle ot'body. of mouth and vent. the tail. 



$ 34-5 3-6 31 34 221 42 151 



9 33 3 33 36 285 55 200 



The male has a somewhat stouter and higher body than the female ; the 

 head is in both blunt and thick ; the occipitals divided into several small 

 shields ; male with one postocular on one and two on the other side, female 

 only with one postocular ; third and fourth labials enter the orbit ; the two 

 pairs of chin-shields are separated from each other by several small shields. 

 The scales are comparatively somewhat larger and fewer in the male, than 

 they are in the female ; each scale has a small central tubercular keel, and of 

 the ventrals each has two. In the female the keels on the lower side are 

 only a little larger than on the upper, but in the male they become regularly 

 spinous along the whole of the underside, largest on the ventrals, attaining 

 on the median ones a length of one tenth of an inch. 



. The coloration is very similar in both sexes : head olive above, with a 

 yellow band from the eye to the neck ; body in male with fifty, in the female 

 with forty-eight transverse dark bands, separated by narrower yellow inter- 

 spaces, more or less confluent along the back and tapering into a point 

 towards the middle of the body ; lower part of sides and along the belly uni- 

 form yellowish white ; tail yellowish at base, dusky along the ridge, the ter- 

 minal two-thirds of its length nearly entirely black. 



The adult cannot be a very active snake, as the sides of the male are 

 covered with a great number of small Balani. Dr. Giinther's largest specimen 

 was only 17 inches and the only authenticated locality is, he says, Madras. 

 Dr. Fayrer records, (in Calcutta Mad. Gazette, Feb, 1871), a specimen from 

 the the Orissa coast at Puri, and gives a description of the species on p. 22. 



19. Ee^hydeina Valakakten, Boie ( = Bengalensis, Gray). 



A specimen from Karachi has as many as forty-seven series of scales 

 round the neck, and fifty-eight round the middle of the body, where they are 

 hexagonal. 



