30 
DESCRIPTION OF 
No. XXIV. 
COLUBER. 
Abdominal Scuta 2 5 G 'i 
1325 . 
Sub-caudal Squama 6 9 
Called also by the natives Pedda Poda. 
The head a little broader than the neck, oblong, depressed above; from the eyes, con¬ 
tracted, sub-compressed, very obtuse, or sub-truncate; covered, anteriorly, with numerous 
laminae, various in shape and size; but the occiput covered with ovate, smooth, scales. 
The mouth very wide; the jaws nearly of equal length, the lips thickish. The teeth dis¬ 
posed regularly, reflex, sharp, some of the foremost, in the lower jaw, longer than the others; 
in the upper jaw, a marginal, and two palatal rows. 
The eyes proportionally of middle size, lateral, partly covered by the laminae of the orbit, 
oval, protuberant. The nostrils on the side of the rostrum, small, gaping. 
The trunk covered with smooth, ovate, imbricate, scales, two rows excepted on the belly, 
which are orbicular. The scuta are narrow, oblong, acuminate at each end: the sub-cau¬ 
dal squamae are oval, but likewise pointed. Above the aperture of the anus, on each side, 
on a line with the last scuta but one, is a small crooked horn, or spur, pointing outwards. 
The length , six feet; the circumference, where thickest, seven inches. The tail measured 
nine inches, and tapered to a sharp point. 
The colour, universally whitish, variegated with large, broad, irregularly shaped, brown, 
or dusky, spots, edged with black. A remarkable brown streak behind each eye, and a 
large, dark, macula, on the hind head, with a whitish streak in the middle. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This snake was killed in a gentleman’s stable at Vizagapatam, in 1 7 87. The head and 
tail only were drawn, and some of the descriptive memoranda taken at the time having been 
mislaid, the description is more defective than it might have been. 
The three snakes last described, under the name of Pedda Poda, belong to those com¬ 
monly, by the Europeans in India, called Rock Snakes, and are not, by the natives, said to 
be venomous. They grow, I believe, to a much larger size than the present specimens; for 
I have seen one of the same species with No. XXIV. above ten feet long. 
There is a general resemblance in the laminae of the head, the form of the maculae, of the 
scuta, and the squamae, as well as in other circumstances, of all three; but the principal affi- 
