Page:The poisonous snakes of India. For the use of the officials and others residing in the Indian Empire (IA poisonoussnakeso01ewar).pdf/109

 HYDROPHIS STRICTICOLLIS.

“Head narrow, not quite twice as long as broad; body slender, especially in its anterior portion. Two pairs of chin-shields, both of which are in contact with each other. Only one anterior temporal, which is as high as long. One post-ocular. Thirty-four series of scales round the neck. Ventral shields distinct, but only the anterior are twice as broad as the scales of the adjoining series; they are 398 in number. Six small præ-anal shields. Scales smooth in young specimens. Body with fifty-five blackish rings, not quite as broad as the yellowish ground-colour between them; they are rather broader and darker on the back than on tlic belly, and sometimes sub-interrupted in the vertebral and ventral line. Head yellow above, with irregular blackish confluent spots; whitish below. Tail with cloven blackish vertebral bars."