34 8 SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



Costals : Longer than broad and imbricate on the slender 

 part of the body ; about as long as broad, subimbricate or 

 juxtaposed on the compressed part ; with a small, round, 

 slightly eccentric tubercle. In 25 to 33 rows two heads -lengths 

 behind the head ; 37 to 57 in midbody ; and 37 to 57 two heads - 

 lengths before the vent. Ventrals : 376 to 513.* Entire 

 everywhere, nearly twice the breadth of the last row. Anal : 

 Variable. 



(b) Anomalies — Prefrontals : Rarely quite separated by 

 the anterior angle of the frontal as in the type of brookii ; 

 rarely fail to touch the 2nd supralabial, the praeocular meeting 

 the nasal. Postoculars : Rarely two. Temporals : The 

 anterior is rarely confluent with the subjacent supralabial 

 and so reaches the margin of the lip. The posterior rarely 

 touches the last supralabial ; very rarely divided, but I have 

 never seen this on both sides in one specimen. Sublinguals : 

 The fellows of the posterior pair rarely separated by one scale. 

 Cuneate : Sometimes two after the 2nd or 3rd infralabial. 



Dentition. — Detailed under the genus. 



Distribution. — (a) General : From the Malabar Coast of 

 India to New Guinea and China. 



(b) Local : It is apparently extremely rare on the Malabar 

 side of India, for I can find only two records, viz., the specimen 

 so labelled in the British Museum and one mentioned by 

 Murray (lindsayi) from Karachi. There is no specimen in the 

 Bombay Natural History Society's collection from that coast. 

 I have failed to get a specimen and there is no example in the 

 Trivandrum Museum. There is no record from Ceylon, and the 

 one specimen so labelled in the Colombo Museum and mentioned 

 by Haly proved to be a cyanocinctus . It is a fairly common 

 snake at Madras and all the way up the coast to the Sunder - 

 bunds. I have seen one from Akyab, but none from the 

 Burmese Coast. The only records further East are the two 

 types of Gunther's atriceps obtained through Jamrach, said to 

 be from Siam; Cantor's one specimen labelled " Penan g" : 

 the type of Boulenger's rhombifer from Perak; the type of 



* Not 531, as erroneously printed in my Monograph (p. 200). 



