OCR Text |
Show 1871.] DR. J. ANDERSON ON INDIAN REPTILES. 179 agonal; superciliaries rather small; occipitals narrow and long and rounded posteriorly. Loreal nearly square, in contact with first, second, and third upper labials. One praeocular, widely separated from the vertical, resting on the third labial; two postoculars, the lower one long, resting on the third and fourth labials. One single much elongated temporal in contact with the postoculars, succeeded by a large scale-like shield. Five upper labials, all excluded from the orbit by the oculars ; eight lower labials, the front pair forming a suture behind the mental. Two pairs of chin-shields in contact with each other, the anterior pair in contact with four labials ; nineteen rows of smooth, moderately elongated scales. Ventrals narrow, 268 ; anal bifid ; subcaudals two-rowed, fifty-six. General colour dull yellow ; tip of snout bluish black ; a broad black band between the eyes involving the oculars, vertical, and occipitals, and a black band from behind the angle of the mouth across the occiput, involving one temporal; all the rest of the head of the same yellow colour as the body generally; forty-nine large bluish-black spots or bars on the back, contracting to a point on the sides and only passing halfway down them, sometimes confluent on the back ; twelve black rings encircling the tail and occasionally confluent above and below. Teeth four in each jaw, the posterior one the largest, enclosed in a distinct pouch and indistinctly grooved. Hab. Amherst, near the mouth of Moulmein river. As remarked by Dr. Stoliczka, this species has a very marked resemblance in coloration to Hipistes hydrinus ; and, as is well known, both of these Snakes, as also others of the Homalopsidae, appear to mimic the true Hydrophiidae. I think there can be no doubt that Cope's recognition of Peters's Hydrodipsas as Cantoria is correct. CERBERUS RHYNCHOPS, Schneid. ; Gthr. I. c. p. 279. This is not an uncommon species in Lower Bengal; and it appears equally to frequent fresh and salt water; for I have specimens from localities on the Hoogley ninety miles from the sea, and beyond the influence of the tides, and even as far inland as Burrakur, about 120 miles in a straight line from the sea, while there are others in this museum from the coasts of the Andaman Islands and Burmah. It has also been obtained in the Nicobars. Ferania sieboldii seems to have a similar power of accommodating itself to fresh and salt water, and to have even a more extended inland distribution than the present species ; for Carlleyle has more than one specimen from Agra, more than 1000 miles from the sea. The shields of the head are subject to considerable variation, and in one specimen from the Hoogley the nasal shields are confluent into one, which forms a broad suture with the rostral; there are, however, faint indications of the compressed character of this shield. In four specimens from different localities, Akyab, the Hoogley, and Amherst on the coast of Burmah, there are two infraoculars. The upper labials are also subject to variation depending on the extent of the division that prevails among them. |