Page:The poisonous snakes of India. For the use of the officials and others residing in the Indian Empire (IA poisonoussnakeso01ewar).pdf/107

 HYDROPHIS CHLORIS.

"Head very small, of moderate width; neck very slender, the length of the thin part of the body more than one-third of the total. Rostral shield very small, much broader than long; one post-ocular; the third upper labial is not in contact with the nasal. Two pairs of chin-shields, in contact with cach other. Thirty-one to thirty-three series of scales round the neck; scales on the back with a faint keel, and with a small tubercle near the apex. Ventral shields distinct, especially on the thin portion of the body, but not much larger than the scales of the adjoining series, 473–500 in number. Four anal shields, the outer of which are very large. Trunk greenish-olive above, yellowish on the side and below, from fifty-nine to sixty-seven rhombic blackish bands across the back, which are much narrower and fainter on the sides, and extend round the lly; their angles on the vertebral line are sometimes confluent, especially on the anterior part of the body, where the yellowish ground-colour between the cross-bands is sometimes reduced to round spots disposed in pairs. Head and anterior part of the belly entirely black, Young specimens have the markings of a deep black."