the hinder part of the body and tail, tend to bifurcate or divide at their free
extremities. Stoliczka* has recorded that the male of S. platyceps, Blyth, is also
distinguished from its female by the stronger keeling of the scales. This male of
S. modeslus was captured in the Khasia Hills by the late Lieutenant Bourne in
the very same locality in which he obtained the females which have been compared
with the types of the species. Its sex was determined not by any fancied
external characters distinctive of the sexes, but by actual dissection. Comparing
this specimen with a female of nearly the same dimensions of body, the tail in the
latter is 8 inches to 6*20 inches in the male; but the comparison of a large series
of females reveals the fact that the tail in them is, at the same time, liable to vary
slightly in its length.
The Yunnan specimens, two in number, have 8 and 10 ventrals less than the
smallest, number of ventrals in the Cherra Poonjee snakes, viz., 162, whereas their
sub-caudals are respectively 122 and 110; the largest number of sub-caudals that
I have met with in specimens from the Khasia Hills being 108.
In the Yunnan snakes, the colour is uniform dark olive-brown above, the ground
colour of the under surface being yellow, but each ventral has a black spot on its
angle, these spots becoming confluent on the hinder part of the body, and prolonged
on to the sub-caudals as a black line. A narrow pale-olive yellow lateral band runs
along the body above the spots, disappearing on the posterior half of the body.
There is an obscure short pale-yellow band from the gape on to the side of the nape,
followed by a lateral series of pale spots separated from each other by an interval of
two scales. On the posterior half of the trunk, these spots become confluent, and
are prolonged on to the tail as an obscure yellowish band. All the labials have
blackish posterior margins, and their surfaces, and those of the chin-shields and the
sub-caudals, are more or less speckled with dusky-brown.
In the examples from the Khasia. TTills the coloration somewhat differs from the
foregoing. The colour of the upper surface is dark olive-blackish, the pale band on
the sides of the nape is hardly visible, and the pale lateral spots and band are very
obscure, and are almost lost. The dark colour of the upper parts passes on to the
sides of the ventrals, and meets from either side nearly in the mesial line on the
anterior part of the body, and wholly so posteriorly, and on the sub-caudals; but a
narrow yellow area is generally left along the free margin of each plate, and is the
representative of the yellow lateral line of the Yunnan snakes. The labials, chin-
shields and throat are speckled or clouded with dusky. In the male from Cherra
Poonjee, the pale lateral spots are very distinct, and the pale line along the angles of
the ventrals is observable, also the two rows of dark or black spots, one above,
and the other below the pale lateral spots. In this specimen, as in some Cherra
Poonjee females, the pale narrow line from the gape, along the side of the nape, is
also observable.
The types of this species were in all probability from the Khasia Hills. It is
closely allied to T. platyceps, Blyth.
1 Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, 1870, vol. xsxix, p. 191.
T r o p i d o n o t u s d i p s a s , Blyth.
Tropidonotus dipsas, Blyth, Joum. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xxiii, 1854, p. 297.
Tropidonotus junceus, Stoliczka, Journ. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xl, 1871, p. 434; Theobald, Descr..
Cat. Sept., Brit. Ind., 1876, p. 176.
Twelve specimens were collected of this snake; a young one from Ponsee,
another example from Sanda, and the remainder from the secluded valley of Hotha.
The species is very prevalent around the village of Hotha, where it is the common
grass-snake. There is a certain similarity in its colouring to T. stolatus, which it
appears to replace in Western China. T. stolatus is found but sparingly at Bhamd,
and seemingly does not extend its range to the Kakhyen hills, which form the
natural boundary between the low-lying valley of the Irawady and the elevated
country of Yunnan.
Head distinct from the neck, moderately long and broad, slightly depressed.
Snout rather rounded at the point; scales in 19 rows, strongly keeled. B-ostrai twice
as broad as high. Anterior frontals sub-triangular, transversely truncated in front
and more than half as large as the posterior frontals. Vertical nearly as long as
the occipitais. Lateral margins convergent, slightly concave in some, convex in
others; hinder margins meeting at a right angle, occipitais rounded behind. In
young specimens they are narrower than in adults and more elongated. Eight or
seven upper labials, the third, fourth, and fifth, or third and fourth, entering the orbit;
the latter when two of the labials are confluent. Loreal square. One to three preoculars,
the upper reaching the surface of the head. Three postoculars. Temporals
irregular, 2 + 1 + 3, or 2 or 1 + 1 + 2. One or two temporals in contact with
one to three postoculars. Anterior pair of chin shields much shorter than the hinder
pair, in contact with five lower labials. Eighteen teeth in each jaw, with two longer
behind, scarcely separated by an interval. General colour dark olive-brown, with
a black lateral band from behind the eye to the angle of the mouth and along the
side of the body to the end of the tail with a lighter olive-brown band below i t ; the
lateral margins of the ventrals being edged with black : a light olive-yellow band
above the black one, commencing a little way behind the eye and extending to the
tip of the tail. Under surface gamboge-yellow.
The following table will illustrate the amount of variation to which this species
is subject.
Inches. Inches. Inohes. Inches. Inches. Inehes. Inches. Inches. Inches.
Total length 1100 24-66 25 00 23-62 25-08 23-33 23-33 18-25 17-62
Length or head 0-48 0-58 0-62 0 58 0-62 0-60 0-54 0-50 0-46
„ . tail 1-67 6-26 6*16 6-46 6-62 6 0 0 605 4-58 4-62
Ventrals. . . . . 162 174 165 170 163 168 175 161 175
S ub-caudals . . . . 78 85 81 88 89 88 86 85 - 95
Nineteen rows of scales in all the specimens, save No. 3, which has only 18 on
the middle of the trunk, and a little farther back only 17 rows of scales.