20 Records of the Indian Museum. [Voi,. XXIV, 



the last longer than the two preceding shields. Mental variable ; 

 sometimes touching the anterior sublinguals, sometimes not. Sub- 

 linguals : three large pairs, roughly symmetrical, with no groove 

 between them. Infralabials very small. Costals : in 15 rows in 

 the whole body-length ; smooth, or some of the median rows feebly 

 keeled. No apical pits. Vertebrals usually enlarged ; arising by 

 a gradual development, not a confluence of rows. Ventrals well 

 developed, broad; the first the largest of the series. Anal entire. 

 Supracaudals in even rows, vertebrals not enlarged. Subcaudals 

 in pairs. 



Osteoi^ogicai, Characters. 



Praemaxilla about as broad as high. Nasals forming an os- 

 seous suture with the frontals. Frontals contributing to the rim of 

 the orbit ; not constricted at midorbit. Praefrontal suture extend- 

 ing beyond the middle of the frontal. Postfrontal not touching the 

 frontal. Parietal contributing to the rim of the orbit. Supratem- 

 poral rudimentary; not projecting beyond the quadrate ante- 

 riorly. Quadrate well developed ; oblique from above backwards. 

 Columella auris extending from about the middle of the quadrate 

 to the exoccipital. Maxilla about half the length of the dentary ; 

 expanded in depth anteriorly ; expanded laterally posteriorly. 

 Teeth 1 to 6 ; anododont, syncranterian , scaphiodont. An 

 edentulous space anteriorly, also posteriorly in some species. Ec- 

 topterygoid well developed ; expanded anteriorly to overlie the 

 posterior expansion of the maxilla. Palatine short; expanded 

 laterally anteriorly. Teeth 1 to 3 ; anododont, kumatodont or 

 scaphiodont. An edentulous space anteriorly, and in some species 

 posteriorly. Pterygoid long. Teeth 7 to 20 ; anododont, scaphio- 

 dont. Mandible. Angular present. Splenial present. Coronoid 

 absent. Dentary about twice its distance to the quadrate. Teeth 

 15 to 23 ; anododont, scaphiodont. Occipitals. The condyle is 

 horseshoe-shaped, and formed by processes from the basioccipital 

 and exoccipitals. 



Vertebrae. Neural spines. Absent on the atlas. Well de- 

 veloped and as long as the body on the axis. Short and obliquely 

 set backwards on the 3rd and 4th vertebrae, nearly as long as the 

 body in the succeeding corporeal, and the caudal vertebrae. 

 Hypapophyses. Well developed and vertical on the atlas. Bifid 

 on the axis, the anterior vertical, the posterior obliquely set back- 

 wards. Disappearing in the vertebrae in the second-eighth of the 

 body. 1 Absent on the first two caudal vertebrae. Two, laterally 

 placed, on the 3rd and succeeding caudal vertebrae. 



Costae. First as long as the second, articulated to the 3rd 

 vertebra. Dast bifid, the outer ramus about one-third as long as 

 the inner. Pseudocostal processes. Bifid on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd 

 caudal vertebrae, single on the succeeding vertebrae. 



1 As I find is the case in over twenty five species of Colubridae where the 

 hypapophyses are not continued to the last vertebra. This site suggests some 

 connection with the shoulder girdle of some ancestral form. 



