270 SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



Identification. — The scale rows 21 two heads-lengths 

 behind the head, 21 in midbody, and 15 two heads-lengths 

 before the vent will proclaim the species among Ceylon 

 snakes 



Colouration. — (a) Variety typicus — The ground colour is 

 usually of a light yellowish-brown, sandy, or fawn hue, which 

 may be uniform or more or less mottled with darker shades, 

 especially low in the flanks, or sparsely scattered with black 

 spots. Dorsally a series of dark, more or less distinct, y-shaped 

 marks occur on each side, which fade posteriorly, ending at 

 or before the vent . The shade between the arms of each ' ' y " is 

 lighter, often, indeed, whitish. Where the series of one side 

 exactly meets the fellows of the other on the spine, as fre- 

 quently happens in part, if not the whole length, of the body, 

 these marks resemble arrowheads. The belly is pearly -white 

 with small, circular, rufous, or brownish spots laterally. Blyth 

 says the very young are pale with but slight traces of the adult 

 marks, but I cannot say that my young specimens have been 

 in any way different from adults. I have noticed that the 

 skin between the scales is dun, and somewhat darker in the 

 gamma marks, and in sloughs these marks are obscurely 

 traceable. A specimen I got in Delhi was much the colour of 

 cafe-au-lait, and was copiously speckled with very fine 

 punctiform dark spots, the gamma marks being very obscure. 

 The head bears a pair of large lung-shaped brown patches, 

 often delineated with black, and a narrow dark streak passes 

 from behind the eye towards the gape. 



(6) Variety melanocephalus (Annandale) — Darker than the 

 last, with a black head ; and recorded only from the borders 

 of Persia and Baluchistan. 



Habits. — (a) Haunts : It is essentially arboreal in habit, 

 frequenting bushes, scrub, or trees, usually in close proximity 

 to the ground, though it will climb to considerable elev ations 

 at times. I have frequently come across its sloughs low 

 down in lantana and similar tangled vegetation. It often 

 descends to the ground, and I have several times met 

 with it at night in the open, on the road, or a garden path. 

 At these times it was always on the move, but I have 



