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Show 632 MR. BOULENGER ON TRANSCASPIAN REPTILES. [Dec. 1, Indian Snake, which is known from Sind, the Punjab, the North- Western Provinces, and the hills below Simla to Southern India \ PSEUDOCYCLOPHIS WALTERI, Bttg. Since the description of this species by Boettger in 1888, from a single specimen obtained by Dr. Walter in Transcaspia, close to the North-eastern limit of Persia, I have examined a second specimen found in Sind by Mr. Blanford. Quite recently the British Museum has received, through M . Warentzoff, a half-grown specimen, from Ashabad. It has 235 ventrals and 73 subcaudals. Loreal absent. The upper surface of the head, behind the snout, and the nape blackish; the blackish cross-bars or transverse series of spots well marked on the whole body, but absent from the tail. ZAMENIS RHODORHACHIS, Jan. This species may be added to the list of Transcaspian Reptiles, as M . Zaroudnoi's notes2 on a dark grey Snake with a bright red vertebral stripe, seen by him at Gjarmaou, Ashabad, Merv, and Tedshen, evidently refer to it. I may add that I now regard Z. rhodorhachis ( = Gonyosoma dorsale, And.) and Z. ladacensis as colour varieties of one and the same species, which is perfectly separable from both Z. ventrimaculatus and Z. karelinii. The South-western Asian species of Zamenis may be distinguished as follows:- A. Scales in 17 rows, smooth; posterior chin-shields in contact with each other 1. Z. mucosus, L. B. Scales in 19 (exceptionally 17) rows, smooth ; posterior chin-shields separated from each other by scales. a. Frontal not or but slightly wider than the supraocular, more than once and a half as long as broad. Ventrals rather indistinctly angulate laterally, scales with two apical pits 2. Z. gemonensis, Laur. Ventrals very distinctly angulate laterally; scales with a single apical pit 3. Z. dahlii, Fitz. b. Frontal anteriorly considerably wider than the supraocular. a. Nine upper labials, two of which enter the eye. Ventrals 214-255 ; subcaudals 124-145... 4. Z. rhodorhachis, Jan. Ventrals 199-211; subcaudals 82-99 5. Z. ventrimaculatus, Gray. (3. Nine upper labials; a subocular separates the eye from the sixth labial 6. Z. karelinii, Strauch. y. Eight upper labials 7. Z. elegantissimus, Gthr. 1 In a recent paper on Indian Snakes (Journ. As. Soc. Beng. Ix. 1891, p. 233), Mr. W . L. Sclater expresses doubts as to the existence of this Snake in Southern India, its resemblance to L. travancoricus, Bedd., rendering, in his opinion, confusion of the two by no means impossible. I therefore seize this opportunity to state that several specimens, collected by Col. Beddome inWynaad and the Anamallays, are in the British Museum. In addition to the characters I have previously indicated, L. striatus differs from L. travancoricus in having the loreal shield in contact with the internasal, as in L. aulicus and L. anamal- 2 Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 1890, p. 291. |