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Show 1(J6 DR. J. ANDERSON ON INDIAN REPTILES. [Feb. 21, view the circumstances that all the other colours of this red-backed individual are those of the females of this species, the rufous coloration of the dorsal is utterly inadmissible as a specific character, and is due in all likelihood either to a sexual or to some adventitious cause. M y specimen with the red back measures 2" 11'"; tail 4" 6'", imperfect. It is a gravid female. Jerdon's J. planidorsata, as I have said, is founded on the young of this species, and in all probability on young females; for in the young males the dorsal crest is indicated, so that the term which he has applied to this supposed species would be inapplicable to them. They, however, have the rows of scales on either side of the dorsal line referred to by Jerdon, a character which is to a certain degree persistent in the adult, but which would be unlikely to catch the eye of the observer unless his attention had clearly been called to it in its m u c h more interrupted character in the young. M y specimens agreeing with Jerdon's J. planidorsata were from the same locality as the rest, and were sent as the young. Their heads have the peculiar full appearance so characteristic of that part in young Lizards; and the arrangement of the scales, large and small, and of the almost spiny scales on the nape, are the same as in the adults of J. variegata. The females are much more dully coloured than the males; and even the specimen with the red back and tail has the general snake-hue of the others. Iu one adult male the general colour of the body is light yellow, banded over the back and tail with broad black bars, reticulated on the limbs and sides with black ; head above olive-brown, variegated on the vertex and sides with black. The band along the side of the neck is persistent in all, although not so well marked in the female. Another male with the general colour greenish, but banded and reticulated as is the previous one. In some specimens there is a distinct tendency to continue the neck-band along the side of the body, which would seem to connect this species with J. swinhonis, with which I a m strongly inclined to consider it identical. The females are much more darkly and indistinctly marked, and the bands between the black ones on the back are much duller and narrower than in males. The molar dentition in the young is if- to j-f ; and in the adults I have examined 4^ . \^. The gular pouch is black. There is another species of this genus which I have found in the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta. It is closely allied to J. variegata. The Darjeeling specimens are all from an altitude of 3500 to 4500 feet. SITANA MINOR, Gthr. I. c. p. 135. This species is not uncommon in the Central Provinces. I have received twenty specimens from Udipur, Bilaspur, Nagpur, and Ban-dara ; and in all the hind limb extends to beyond the snout, the fore limb extending to the vent when laid backwards. If the name given to the other species really indicates its habitat, it can hardly be said fo inhabit more northern parts of India than the present species. |