716 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [No* 7. 



and abruptly ceasing on the crown ; these and other markings variegating 

 a black ground in a manner difficult to describe in few words. Abdomen 

 finely iridescent; and the tail short and suddenly tapering. In a 

 younger specimen, nearly as long but much less thick, the black colouring 

 is considerably less developed, and but few of the pale spots are traceable 

 along the spine : but there is a well defined broad dusky lateral band, and 

 below this another and narrow dark line margining the series of abdominal 

 scutae. In a young specimen (12J in. long), sent from Pegu by Capt. 

 Berdmore, the colouring of the upper-parts is plain dull rufous, with 

 scarcely an obscure trace of markings ; and that of the lower is bright orpi- 

 ment-yellow, the surface brilliantly shining as in the others, with minute 

 black specks on the throat and hinder half of body underneath, and a 

 row of small yellow spots bordering the lower jaw, which last are more 

 or less distinguishable in the other specimens. It would seem that the 

 tail of this young Snake was white or whitish when alive, for its terminal 

 four-fifths, abruptly separated : for Capt. Berdmore designates it " a small 

 brick-coloured Snake with a white tail ;" and remarks that " it carries this 

 white tail curved up." 



Tropidonotus junceus, Cantor, J. A. S. XVI, 940 : var. Tr. dipsas, 

 nobis, ibid. XXIII, 297. — Tr. macrops, nobis, ibid, is nearly affined, but 

 distinct ; having a much shorter tail, and wanting the lateral rows of 

 spots on the abdominal scutes ; which spots are present in Tr. platyceps, 

 nobis, and also in Herpetodryas Helena, (Daudin), which also is consi- 

 derably affined, but is readily distinguishable by its much smaller eye and 

 less strongly carinated scales. In Burmese specimens of Tr. junceus, 

 the neck and first fourth or fifth of the body are of a vivid olive-green 

 approaching to grass-green, marked with a series of mesial black spots 

 more or less distinct ; the colour then passes to greyish, and is marked 

 with two alternating lateral rows (one on either side) of transversely elon- 

 gated white spots, in some very distinct and conspicuous, in others obscure ; 

 and these are more or less distinctly coutinued to the end of the tail : 

 ^here is also a dark band through the eye, and below this the throat is 

 bright yellow in the young, a streak of the same passing up to meet its 

 opposite upon the nape ; this bright yellow gradually passes off to yellow- 

 ish-white posteriorly, where the green passes to grey above ; in some the 

 throat and v-like mark on nape are white, and the latter is more or less 

 imperfect. In the Sikim variety ( ? Tr. dipsas), there is an interrupted 

 dark lateral band continued backward from the nape -mark ; and the double 

 series of white spots above it commence from the nape, and are longi- 

 tudinal, rather than transversely elongated, as in the Burmese race : the 



