Reptiles of British India
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DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE 9 REPTILES OF BRITISH INDIA. BY WILLIAM THEOBALD, Esq., GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. CALCUTTA: T HACKER, SPINK AND CO. Bombay: THACKER, VINING & CO. London: W. THACKER & CO. 1876. 'R-l CALCUTTA: PRINTED BY XHACKKK, SPINK AND CO. PREFACE. In compiling the present Catalogue my object lias been to meet a want which at present blocks the way to the general study of Herpetology in India, and to supply in an accessible and portable form such a condensed descrip- tion of our Indian Reptiles as may enable any one interested in the Fauna of his locality to acquaint him- self with the Reptiles he meets with. Some such work, indeed, as that now offered, is the indispensable precursor of a more complete and exhaustive work, for which, at our materials are and the present, wholly inadequate ; I the main benefit anticipate from present publication is, that it may be the means of conducing to the formation of a large mass of notes, especially such as refer to distribu- tion of species, from men who are at present unable to make trustworthy observations simply from the bulky or inaccessible nature of the books which treat of this division of the animal kingdom. The present Catalogue is based on Giinther's Monograph, published by the Ray Society in 1864. But though a great addition has been made to the Indian Reptile Fauna since that period, yet the total number of species in the present Catalogue will not greatly exceed those described by Giinther, from the fact that considerably more than 100 species (exclusive of Hydrophidae which with Batrachia I do not at present intend to include), enumerated by Giinther, are excluded by me on geogra- phical grounds. IV PREFACE. My descriptions of species will be found to vary greatly in length and as regards the amount of detail given; but this is intentional, as my object is not to give an exhaustive description of any species, but merely such a description, and so much detail of its structure, as will enable the student to specifically determine it, my object being the production of a useful working student's handbook, ratlier than a more preten- tious Zoological monograph, which must be the work of some future decade at the same time I am so conscious of ; its many shortcomings, that nothing but my urgent sense of the want of some such work emboldens me to come forward with what I cannot but think will be an accept- able contribution to brother naturalists in India, interest- ed in this branch of natural science, or the class of men as they have been contemptuously described, who are "desirous of acquainting themselves with animals." (Zoological Record, 1868, p. 5.) As for my critics, 1 fully admit, what they will no ' doubt put with great force, in a variety of shapes, that the book would have been better written, if the author had taken more pains,' but as one specimen of the difficulties a compiler has to encounter in India, I may mention that there is no complete copy in Calcutta of the Madras Quarterly and Monthly Journal of Medical Science, in which Beddome's original descriptions of South Indian Keptiles appeared, and it was only as these pages were going through the Press, that I managed to get some of the numbers I required. Some critics, no doubt, with that mixture of pertness, flavoured with Boeotian ignorance of Indian surroundings and drawbacks, and that inapprecia- PREFACE. V tion of the labours of Indian observers, wliich form almost a specific character of some specimens of the animal in Europe, may affect surprise, at my not waiting till I was in a position to make the work more satisfactory and but as a matter of an Indian official who complete ; fact, compiles a work like the present, at odd hours snatched from other duties, whilst waiting maybe for a break in the weather to march, or whilst better men are busy saying their prayers, cannot select his own time and place, and as it is quite uncertain when I may again revisit the Presi- dency Capital, where alone such a work can be got out within any reasonable time, it became simply a question of doing the best under the circumstances, or doing nothing, and I leave it to the unbiased reader to determine whether I have adopted the wiser course of the two. To the kind friends who have taken the trouble to aid me in the present undertaking I tender my grateful thanks, expressing a regret however, that the number of my creditors in this respect does not bear a more encouraging proportion to the numbers of educated, not to say scientifically trained men, scattered either in a military, medical, or administrative capacity over the enormous area of our Indian Empire. My main contri- butors are Col. Nelson Davies, Akyab ; Capt. William- Tura Palamkotta Dr. son, ; Major Swiney, ; Hunger- Thaietmio A. ford, ; Theobald, Esq., Madras ; A. Mallewoon A. Futteh- Hough, Esq., ; Anderson, Esq., J. W. T. of gurh ; Wood-Mason, Esq., Blanford, Esq., Calcutta, and J. Cockburn, Esq., Allahabad. ERRATA ET ADDENDA. " Page 6, before Chaibassia," insert: — " G. Arakana, N. S. " Head covered with skin, without plates. Uniform pale brown. Upper jaw bidenticulate in front. Skin of body greenish brown. Pupil large, black, with a pale iris, encircled by a ring of dark umber. Claws of hind feet very long. Shell above flat, with a well marked vertebral ridge and a somewhat gibbous costal ridge down each side, quite as pi-ominent as the vertebral ridge, though less sharply defined. Nuchal plate pointed before, in first triangular. Shell smooth front, serrated behind The three vertebrals subequal, the fourth smallest; all concentrically grooved, and rateably striated from a posterior umbo. The last vertebral is nearly as broad as four marginals. Gulars small, not half as long as the postgulars. Abdominals rather larger than Pectorals. Notch in caudals larger than a right angle. Colour above yellowish, dark mottled. Below, yellow, black mottled along the sides. An aged female measured 9-5 inches in a straight line. " Inhabits Akyab." " " Page 10, for crassilabris," read crassicollia." Page 31 : — " T. Phayrei, Theob. *' It is not improbable that this is the T Gangeticus apud Cantor, said to occur at Pinang."D* Page 31, add at bottom : — "T. ephippium, Theob. Pro. A. S. B., August 1875. " Young only known, and recognised by a rather irregular saddle-shaped dark patch on the back, which fades on the shell drying. No ocelli. " Inhabits Tenasserim." Page 33 :— " Gharialis Gangeticus. *' It is generally supposed that the long nosed fish eating Ghainal will not attack man, but Capt. Gordon Young, Deputy Commissioner of Hushiapur, told me that one of these creatures attacked a man who was crossing a shallow stream, close to the Duke of Edinburgh's Sporting Camp near the Nipal frontier. The man's cries attracted the notice of a Sepoy, who, running up, Vlll ERRATA ET ADDENDA. discharged bis gun into tbe animal, and then attacked it witli the bayonet in the shallow water. It received, however, its coup de grace from Capt. Gordon Young's rifle, and its spoils became the possession of the Duke. The animal was about 18 feet (I think\ and this instance is sufficient to prove that it occasionally at all events will attack men. " It is well to bear in mind that animals seized by crocodiles always perish by drowning, as they are, unless accidentally rescued, at once dragged beneath the water and held there till they perish, the crocodile delaying his meal till putrefaction sets in, and renders easier the process of tearing off the flesh of the victim. When, therefore, bodies said to have been killed by crocodiles are brought to a surgeon, the condition of the lungs will at once if the victim was seized and lacerated as stated but if of prove ; no signs asphyxia are present, then it may safely be concluded that death had occurred prior to the body being attacked by these animals." Page 51, at bottom, add : — " E. rugifera Stol., J. A. S., 1870, Part II, p. 1 70. " Body moderately stout. Fore limbs feeble, reaching 'when laid forward to the front-angle of the eye. The prefrontal forms a narrow suture with the the first and the vertical. Post frontals rostal, praeocular, separated ; in contact with the two loreals. Nostril large round. Two loreals, the posterior one, much the largest. Five occipituls. The two first narrow, the median broadly oval, small, the two last very large. Scales in 26 rows round the on the back and sides longitudinal ; body, large ; strongly 5-keeled, and in 23 transverse rows. 8 rows of scales on the belly smooth. " Colour dark brown, paler on the head. A narrow streak of greenish from the superciliary edge along the anterior part of body, with a similar one below indistinct bands it, both margined with brown. Two along the back. Upper labials yellowish. Belly yellowish white with a greenish irridescent tinge. " Grows to nearly 5 inches (tail 2'75). " Inhabits Kamarta, Nikobars." " " Page 60, for E. macrotis," read M. macrotis," and before it insert : — " M. Ladakensis, Gthr. " Scales in 38 longitudinal rows, and 56 transverse. A pair of large anals covering the vent. Subcaudals broad. Ear denticulated in front. Limbs well developed. The fore-leg extends to the snout, the hind, more than half way to the axilla. " Colour greenish with longitudinal rows of black dots. Sides obscurely banded. Belly greenish white. " Type imperfect (head and body 2 inches). " Inhabits Ladak." " " Pige 65, for cyanelia," read cyanella." ERRATA ET ADDENDA.