180 Indian and Malayan Amphibia and Reptilia. [No. 3, 



few scales behind the eye are perfectly identical with those ofjubata, 

 but all four specimens have the head more depressed and the snout 

 longer and somewhat narrower, than is the case in the Java specimen 

 which I have for comparison. The upper labials are ten in the 

 Nicobar and only eight in the Javanese specimen ; the upper rostral 

 is also much larger in the former than in the latter. Still considering 

 all the other more important characters in a species I can regard the 

 Nicobar form only as a variety of the Javanese one. 



All Nicobar specimens are bright green, some of them bright 

 yellow on the head and neck, the occipital skin, tympanum aud 

 sometimes a spot on the top of the head behind the restrum are 

 black ; the gular sack bright brick red apparently in the male, and 

 about four-fifth of the posterior portion of the tail is reddish brown. 



Was the Pondicherry specimen, of which D u m. and B i b r o n 

 speak, not received from the French Missionaries on the Nicobars 

 through some friend in Pondicherry ? 



34. Tiaris subcristata, B 1 y t h, (G ii n t h., 1. cit. p. 151). 



Syn. Coryphoplnjlax Maximiliani, F i t z. apud Steindachner, Novara 

 Kept., p. 30. 



This is an extremely variable species both as regards scales as 

 well as coloration. The scales on the top of the snout are usually 

 somewhat enlarged, and the median ones form a short carina ; the 

 canthus rostralis is sharp and continues on the supraciliary edge. On 

 each side of the occiput, there is a group of large scales, and some- 

 times a distinct group in the middle between both. Irregularly scat- 

 tered polyhedral scales are often found all round the tympanum, but 

 they are scarcely in two specimens identically placed. In some large 

 specimens there is one or two between the eye and the tympanum, 

 one large one above it near the crest, and two somewhat smaller 

 ones nearer the tympanum, one or two are situated behind, and one 

 occasionally below. In young specimens these polyhedral scales are 

 less numerous and sometimes reduced to but three. The centre of 

 the tympanum is always hardened. There are eight or nine low, 

 carinated upper labials, and generally 9 or 1 lower labials, similar 

 in form to the others. 



The scales of the body are very small, about 40 — 50 in a transverse 



