The poisonous snakes of India : for the use of the officials and others residing in the Indian Empire / compiled by Joseph Ewart.

  • Ewart, Joseph (Sir)
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The poisonous snakes of India : for the use of the officials and others residing in the Indian Empire / compiled by Joseph Ewart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    “ Head very small, of moderate width ; neck very slender, the length of the thin part of the body being more than one-thu’d of the total. Hostral 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 each 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 belly; their angles on the vertebral line are some- times 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.”