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Show 172 DR. J. ANDERSON ON INDIAN REPTILES. [Feb. 21, frontal, and thirteen rows of scales would seem to indicate that generically distinct from Ablabes. Hab. Himalaya (Eastern), not uncommon at elevations varying from 3000 to 7000 feet. COLUBER PORPHYRACEUS, Cantor; Gthr. I. c. p. 239. Fresh specimens, in spirit, are a bright brick-red on the sides, slightly darker above. On the posterior two-thirds of the body the cross bands are not darker than the general colour; and their total number is twenty. This specimen measures 36 inches, of which the tail forms 5| inches. In other individuals, from the same locality as the former, measuring 32f inches, and the tail 5±, the cross bands are distinctly darker than the ground-colour, and are twenty-one in number; but eight of them, in the middle and posterior portion of the body, arc reduced to mere lateral spots. In another specimen, measuring 22 inches, of which the tail forms 3$, the colour is brownish olive, and there are twenty-three cross bands, markedly distinct from the general colour of the snake. Eight of the cross bands before the tail are reduced to lateral spots. In these four specimens from Darjeeling Himalaya, from altitudes varying from 3000 to 5000 feet, the following numbers prevail:- Ventrals. Caudals. Bands. 210 65 17 208 52 21 215 69 24 208 63 19 COMPSOSOMA RETICULARE, Cantor; Gthr. I.e. p. 245. Coluber fasciolatus, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, xxii. p. 409. Zamenis fasciolatus, Theobald, Cat. Rept. As. Soc. Mus. 1868, p. 53. Head not very distinct from neck, long and flat. Snout long and broad, rounded in front; rostal variable, considerably broader than high, or as high as broad. Anterior frontals subquadrangular or almost triangular, broader than long, less or more than half the size of the posterior frontals ; posterior frontals quadrangular. Vertical longer than the occipital suture ; frontal as broad as or slightly broader than superciliary margin ; occipital margins meeting nearly at a right angle; superciliary margins moderately convergent, slightly concave in some. Extreme length of occipitals equals vertical and one-third of posterior frontals; obliquely or nearly transversely truncated or rounded behind. Loreal almost square, or nearly twice as long as broad, with four sides ; the one in contact with the praeocular nearly as long as the one in contact with the second and third labials, the other two sides being about half the size of them. Prreocular large, reaching to the upper surface of the head, but widely separated from the vertical. In some specimens from Darjeeling a small portion is separated from the third labial as a supernumerary pi*~eocular. Two first |