SNAKES OF CEYLON. 265 



Costals : About as long as broad, rectiform, smooth, without 

 apical pits. Vertebrals not enlarged, the breadth of its scales 

 subequal to their length, and less than those of the ultimate 

 row. Ultimate row with scales broader than long. In 17 

 rows to behind midbody, where they reduce to 15 by a fusion 

 of the third and fourth rows from the ventrals. They further 

 reduce to 13 before the vent by the blending of the sixth and 

 seventh rows from the ventrais. Ventrals : 145 to 154 ; not 

 keeled. Anal : Divided. Supracaudals : In even rows. Sub- 

 caudals : 30 to 34 ; divided. 



(b) Anomalies — Temporals: Rarely two. Supralabials : 

 Sometimes seven, with the 3rd and 4th touching the 

 eye. 



Dentition.— I have no skull. 



Distribution. — (a) General : The coasts of India as far 

 north as the Gulf of Cambay, on the western side, to the 

 Burmese coasts. Boulenger (Catalogue of Snakes, Brit. 

 Museum, Vol. III., p. 21) gives Ceylon as part of its habitat. 

 Haly, in discussing doubts which had arisen before his day, 

 as to whether this species occurred in Ceylon, says " the 

 occurrence of G. bicolor ( = G. prevostiana, vide synonymy) 

 in Ceylon is set at rest by the capture of a specimen in the 

 Kelani river by Mr. H. F. Fernando, which he presented to 

 the Museum." When I visited Colombo Museum I examined 

 a specimen (No. 99), which is probably the identical one 

 referred to. 



(6) Local: Seemingly a very rare snake in Ceylon. It is 

 also a very uncommon snake round the coasts of India, judging 

 from the dearth of specimens in Museums. There is one in 

 the British Museum from Bombay, and two from Burma. 

 Phipson mentions four obtained from the vicinity of Bombay, 

 and I have had one specimen from Cannanore, another from 

 Burma, and have examined another from Broach in the Gulf 

 of Cambay. I saw no specimen in the Indian Museum, and 

 it is perhaps singular that it has not been recorded from the 

 eastern coast of India. 



39 6(6)20 



