SNAKES or CEYLON. 417 



body. These are deep seaweed-green or blackish-green, 

 broader than the intervals, and narrow subcostally. They are 

 well defined in young examples, and usually grow more and 

 more ill-defined with age. In some examples the bars are 

 replaced by bands that completely encircle the body (Variety 

 annulata of Fischer). Both bars and bands may be confluent 

 on the spine, and the anterior bands are often confluent 

 ventrally. The head is dark seaweed-green or blackish, more 

 or less mottled with yellow, the latter hue tending to form 

 a horseshoe-shaped mark, which becomes more and more 

 obsolescent as age advances. The tail is barred like the body, 

 and black at the tip. 



Habits. — No special remarks have been recorded that I can 

 find. 



Food. — I can find no allusion to any special fish eaten. 



Breeding, — No events have been published. 



Growth. — Maximum Length : Gunther gives the length of 

 one as 915 mm. (3 feet). 



Poison. — -There is no record of a casualty from this snake, 

 and the poison has not been experimented with in the 

 laboratory. 



Lepidosis. — [a) Typical — Rostral : About as deep as broad. 

 Nasals : Two sutures usually pass from the nostrils, one back- 

 wards to the praefrontals, and the other outwards to the 1st 

 supralabial. Prefrontals : Touch the 2nd supralabial. 

 Frontal : Entire, the fronto-parietal sutures longest. 

 Parietals : Entire, touching the postoculars. Prasoculars : 

 One. Postoculars : One, two, or three. Temporals : Not 

 differentiated ; replaced by scales which are extremely variable 

 in number and disposition. Supralabials : Seven or eight ; 

 the 1st and 2nd touching the nasals, and the 3rd and 4th 

 the eye. The anterior 3, 4, or 5 entire, the rest subject to 

 division and great inconstancy. Sublinguals : Absent or so 

 small as not to deserve the name. If recognizable as such, 

 the anterior are completely separated by small scales. Infra 

 labials : Four or five ; the 4th largest and touching three or 



