INDIAN SERPENTS. 
17 
of the trunk little exceeding an inch and a half. The tail round, remarkably long and 
slender, covered with ovate, imbricate, scales, sharp pointed, and so small near the end, that 
it is difficult to count the sub-caudal squamae. 
The colour. The head has the appearance of being covered with green velvet, with a 
yellow streak on each cheek; the rest, including the neck, the trunk, and the tail, is of a 
yellowish grass-green, when the animal is at rest; but when provoked, the neck and part 
of the trunk swells; and the scales, which there lie looser, separating from each other, dis¬ 
cover the white interstitial skin, and some very dark scales, hardly observed before, which, 
together with the white and black edges of some of the other scales, produce a beautiful 
variegation: the green, however, predominating. When the inflation ceases, or the animal 
dies, the scales fall again close together, and the uniform green colour takes place. 
From the throat to the anus, on each side of the belly, runs a yellowish-white fillet, which, 
becoming of a deeper yellow, is continued along part of the tail; two narrower fillets, of a 
bright yellow colour, run along the middle of the abdominal scuta, but are not continued on 
the tail. The scuta and squamae are of a light yellowish-green. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This snake is very common about Vizagapatam, and, I believe, in the Circars, as well as 
in the Carnatic. It is often found on trees; and is said to attack passengers, aiming parti¬ 
cularly at the eyes: but of this I never met with any instance. Its bite on chickens, tried 
repeatedly, produced no other effect than pain. 
The number of sub-caudal squama? in this snake, varies considerably in different subjects: 
the number of scuta is more constant. It may further be remarked, that, from its extreme 
slenderness, the tail is often found mutilated. 
The Coluber Mycterizans is marked by Linnaeus as venomous; a mistake, which has 
very justly been corrected by Dr. Gray, in his ingenious paper on the subject of Amphibia, 
read before the Royal Society." 
* Philosophical Transactions. Vol. 7'J. Part I. 
