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Show 182 DR. J. ANDERSON ON INDIAN REPTILES. [Feb. 21, the nostrils. There are seven teeth in the upper jaw-the first or rather short curved tooth, succeeded by three other short stout teeth, followed by two other very long slender teeth ; and the series is completed by a strong grooved tooth in a special sack. The first two palatal teeth are very much longer and stronger than the others, and nearly eqnal the longest maxillary teeth. One peculiarity of the arrangement of the scales in this genus is their elevation, as it were, above the skin, and the circumstance that the tip of one scale, although it reaches forwards, rests on and between the middle of the pair anterior to its tip, barely reaches beyond the scale in front, and rarely touches it. The result is that there is the appearance produced as if there were a kind of pit or depression at the base of each scale, an appearance which is heightened from the circumstance that the base of each scale is black. The strong keeling of the ventrals is another peculiarity of this interesting genus. Length. Tail. Ventrals. Caudali. 21" 2"' 1" 5'" 165 27 16 0 11 165 23 The general colour of the lower half of the Snake is pale yellow, the upper surface being ashy grey with a few scattered spots on the neck, the back and tail with about fifty-seven or fifty-eight transverse black bands. Two of Cantor's three specimens were captured in fishing-stakes in the sea off the coast of Keddah; the third was washed ashore at Pinang. Dr. Stoliczka* describes this Snake as common at the mouth of the Moulmein river, especially near Amherst, and seems inclined to regard it more as an inhabitant of brackish than salt water. Its discoverer describes it as moving actively and without difficulty over the sand, and that it did not offer to bite ; but Dr. Stoliczka remarks that it is very fierce-an opinion which the Burmese appear to share with him. PSAMMOPHIS CONDANARUS, Merr.; Gthr. I. c. p. 291. This specimen agrees with all the structural details as given by Giinther, but not with his description of the colour. This specimen measures 32 inches, but not entire. The general colour may be described as brown, slightly paler on the head. As described by Giinther, a yellow black-edged streak runs from the rostral along the canthus rostralis and superciliary shield on to the neck, where it becomes broader and is prolonged along the side to the end of the tail, increasing in width on the middle of the body. Another yellow black-edged line runs backwards from the rostral, along the suture of the frontals, to the anterior extremity of the vertical, where it divides, one branch running along each side of that shield to near its end, where it makes a slight outward bend, and then runs backwards through the centre of each occipital, as a yellow band on each side of the vertebral line as far back as the root of the tail. Another narrow yellow black-edged line runs from the rostral, below the loreal * Journ. As. Soc. Beng. vol. xxxix. 1870, p. 207. |