INDIAN SERPENTS. 
si 
OBSERVATIONS. 
The specimen was received from Mr. John of Tranquebar, who represents the 
serpent as extremely beautiful when alive. 
It certainly has no poisonous apparatus, though said by the natives to be highly 
noxious. They account for its name (implying top-climber) in the following manner: 
that after the death of the person bitten, it ascends a tree near the funeral pile, looking 
down, as if with malicious pleasure, while the corpse is consuming. 
This serpent is described by Schneider." He mentions two specimens in Block’s 
Museum. In one, Scuta 198, Squamae 158 ; in the other, Scuta 144, Squamae 65 
In two drawings received from Mr. John the Scuta are 190, Squamae 150. 
The difference in the subcaudal squamae in Schneider’s description, may possibly be 
owing to the tail having been mutilated, a common accident, where it is so slender near 
the point, as in the Coluber Mycterizans and others ; the difference in the scuta, 
supposing no error in counting, is greater than I ever met with in the same species, 
being no less than 6 5. 
He describes the scales as carinated, which I found smooth. 
No. XXVII. 
ANGUIS. 
Squama Abdominales 206 
Squama Subcaudales 8. 
Anguis Scytale Lin. Sys. Mat. p. 923. Called by the natives 
The head, small, short, a little more depressed and obtuse than the tail, to which it 
bears a resemblance sufficient to entitle it to the denomination of double-headed snake. 
The front trigonal lamina intersects two of the same shape, which are perforated by 
the nostrils ; the next pair large irregularly square ; behind, five trigonal laminaa 
occupy the place of the shield-form, lateral, and semicordate. 
The mouth wide, the lower jaw shorter than the upper. A marginal row of teeth 
above ; no fangs. The eyes globular, very small. The nostrils small also. 
The trunk cylindrical, swells a little to the middle, and afterwards diminishes very 
gradually, so that the short tail is nearly as big as the head but less obtuse, The scales 
orbicular, polished, and ciliated ; contiguous in some places, in others imbricate, and 
* Hist. Amph. Java, II. p. 299 . 
