Page:The poisonous snakes of India. For the use of the officials and others residing in the Indian Empire (IA poisonoussnakeso01ewar).pdf/80

40 specimens show the same assemblage of characters as laid down in his description, and the occurrence of fifty-six rings in my specimen, suggest that their multiplicity is either due to greater age (it measures forty-nine inches in length) or to variation. The head too is wholly black, with the exception of a yellow band from the posterior margin of one eye to the other. The upper surface is olive green, and the sides and belly rich dark gamboge yellow, and the fifty-six rings are intensely bluish-black, and the scales generally have a very bright shining lustre. It was from Tolly's Nullah, a tidal stream near Calcutta. The largest of Günther's eight specimens measured thirty inches."