192 SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



General Characters. — Head moderately depressed, broadest 

 midway between the eye and the neck. Snout moderately 

 long, obtusely rounded terminally, markedly declivous, with 

 broadly rounded canthus. Eye moderate. Nostril in the 

 upper two-thirds of the suture between the nasals. Neck 

 fairly evident. Body elongate, fairly robust, cylindrical, 

 attenuating slightly to the neck, and more markedly pos- 

 teriorly. Belly Very obtusely angulate laterally. Tail about 

 one-fourth to one-fifth the total length. 



Identification. — Among Ceylon snakes it is the only species 

 in which the costals are 21 to 23 two heads-lengths behind 

 the head, 23 in midbody, and 17 two heads-lengths before 

 the vent. 



Colouration. — The prevailing hue dorsally is some shade of 

 brown, or olive-brown, some specimens being very light and 

 almost yellowish, others a deep rich brown. Young specimens 

 are beautifully ornamented with crossbars formed of black 

 and whitish longitudinal striations. These bars are most 

 conspicuous anteriorly, and gradually disappear before, at, or 

 at some distance behind the middle of the body. They become 

 increasingly obscure as age advances, and some old specimens 

 are nearly uniform in colour. The head is usually uniform 

 olivaceous and without any markings, but a young specimen 

 of mine in Fyzabad was marbled with lighter hues and a 

 nearly complete periorbital white ring. The belly is uniformly 

 whitish or yellowish. In my young specimen it was greenish- 

 yellow. 



Habits. — (a) Haunts : I believe it frequents jungly tracts 

 chiefly, but will stray into populated areas, and, according to 

 Stoliczka, has been known to enter houses in Calcutta. 



(b) Disposition: It appears to be a plucky and vicious 

 snake when molested. The few comments in this direction to 

 be found in the literature on the species are in agreement. 

 Stoliczka says it is rather a fierce snake when molested, and 

 Blanford speaking of a specimen he encountered says, though 

 young, it was one of the fiercest snakes he ever captured. 

 Several specimens I have seen alive betrayed little malice, 

 and allowed me to handle them without attempting to bite. 



