INDIAN SERPENTS. 
31 
nity is between No. XXIII. and XXIV. ; colour constituting the most obvious difference: 
except the want, in No. XXIII. of the spur, or claw, near the anus. 
The Bora, from Bengal, (No. XXXIX.) furnishes another instance of claws situated near 
the anus; and the Physician General at Madras wrote me, in 1 7 88, “ that lie had lately seen a 
“ snake, named Dussery Pamboo, which had a claw on each side of the anus, resembling the 
“ spur of a cock partridge; and that the man who showed it, affirmed the claws were occasion- 
“ ally employed as weapons of offence, which sometimes rendered it necessary to cut them.” 
No. XXV. 
COLUBER. 
Abdominal Scuta 
Sub-caudal Squama 120 
Called by the natives Dameen. 
The head broader than the neck, broad-ovate, depressed; towards the rostrum compressed, 
covered entirely with seventeen large, and several smaller, laminae. The anterior pair are 
perforated by the nostrils, between which is interposed a pair broad-oval; behind these a 
pair considerably larger, forming together part of a circle: the three laminae between the 
eyes, large, and of equal size: the lateral, utricular; the middle, shield-form, acuminate: the 
next pair (in the usual place of the semi-cordate laminae) resemble together a pair of women’s 
stays; the others are mostly square-form. 
The mouth wide; the jaws nearly equal in length ; the teeth : small, numerous, reflex; a 
marginal, and two palatal rows, in the upper jaw. 
The eyes lateral, distant, remarkably large, oval. The nostrils on the margin of the ros¬ 
trum, very small. 
The trunk round, imbricated with large rhomboidal scales: in length,-; in cir¬ 
cumference, where thickest, four inches. The tail , round, taper, pointed. 
The colour , a dark brown ; and the posterior edge of each scale, being marked with a pen¬ 
cil of black lines, the whole appears variegated with numerous, triangular, black spots, regu¬ 
larly disposed. The scuta and squamae were of a dusky yellow, with ciliated margins, of a 
dull, lead-colour, forming so many transverse, dusky, bands. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
For want of a bottle large enough to contain the whole, the head and tail only were sent 
from Ganjam, in February, 1 7 88 ; hence the description is defective. Mr. Snodgrass, to 
