OPHIDIA. 809 



the back. The first dorsal band is a little distance behind the angle of the mouth. 

 The chin-shields are black, but those below and behind the gape have broad white 

 margins, and from the latter region an obscm-e whitish lateral line can be traced on 

 the anterior half of the body. It is produced by the broad white margins of one or 

 more longitudinal lateral lines of scales. 



The specimen from Prome, only somewhat larger, being 8-92 inches long, 

 resembles the former in every respect having the same number of ventrals and 

 sub-caudals. There is only a slight variation to note in the colour of the head, 

 viz., that the lateral band is prolonged along the upper lip to the front of the eye, 

 where it turns up to reach the lower half of the frontal. 



OLIGODONTIBjE. 



Genus Simotes, D. & Bib. 

 SiMOTES THEOBALDi, Giinther. 



Simotes theoUUi, Gthr., Ann. & Mag., Nat. Hist. 1868 (June), p. 417; Theobald, Descr. Cat. Rent. 

 Brit. Ind., 1876, p. 152. 



One specimen of this species was found at Mandalay. I have compared it 

 with the type, with which it perfectly agrees. 



COLVBmB^. 



Genus Ablabes, Giinther. 

 Ablabes bioolor, Blyth. 



Calamaria bicolor, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc, Bengal, vol. xxiii, 1854, p. 289. 

 Ablabes bicolor , Gthr., Kept. Brit. Ind., 1864, p. 226. 



Grotea bicolor, Theob., Journ. As. Soc, Bengal, vol. xxxvii, 1868, ex. No., p. 45; id., Descr. Cat. 

 Eept. Brit. Ind., 1876, p. 145. 



I captured one specimen of this species at Muangla, and have compared 

 it with the type of the species, and with the specimen in the British Museum, 

 which served Giinther for the description in his work on the Reptiles of India. The 

 latter specimen, as Giinther remarks, is not in a good state of preservation ; and 

 after an examination of it I have failed to satisfy myself whether or no the nostril 

 is in one or between two shields, but Giinther states that the nostril is between 

 two small plates. It would appear, however, from the Yunnan specimen, and from 

 the type also of Calamaria bicolor, that the nasal plates tend to unite ; and from 

 the extent to which this tendency is developed in the latter, Theobald was led to 

 regard the nostril as pierced in the centre of a large shield. But I observe in the 

 type of C. bicolor that the nasal slit is crescentic, and that two nasal plates are 

 indicated by a distinct groove which passes in front of the nostril, and that its labial 



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