166 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol.94 (1997) feet anddigits, keepingits wholebody offtheground. of its occurrence and rarity. In addition, the present It cannot move or walk on a vertical wall but specimen exhibits a noteworthy variation in its mm sometimes raises the whole body vertically with the measurement (145 mm. vs 195 as referred by support of the forelimbs on the wall and the tip of Smith, 1935) and colouration or banding pattern (a the tail on the ground. Information regarding the single creamy band at the base of the tail vs 4-5 natural habitat of this lizard is not well known. creamy bands as referred by Smith, 1935). The tail of the present specimen is dotted with deep brown Identification and remarks: spots instead ofbands as described by Smith (1935). In spite of these variations, it is not possible to Fourspecies oftheFat-tailed Geckobelonging describe this specimen as a new variety, since the to genus Eublepharis Grey are so far known from present find is based on a single specimen. the Indian region, of which E. hardwickii Grey is known to occur in the Eastern Indian states with Acknowledgement particularly in Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal (Smith, 1935). The present specimen We are indebted to Dr. S.K. Talukdar, Scientist, has been identified as Eublepharis hardwickii Grey Division ofHerpetology, Zoological Survey ofIndia (Family Gekkonidae) by the Herpetology foridentifying thespecimen and valuablesuggestions. Department of Zoological Survey of India. The CHANDRA Accession Registrar of the National Zoological June 4, 1996 G. CHATTERJEE collection (Z.S.I. Calcutta) reveals that a single S.N. specimen was collected and reported for the first C. DATTA time from the southern part of West Bengal by a M. MAJUMDAR, British scientist in 1858. The collection of the ZoologyDepartment, Burdwan University present specimen is therefore significant as thge West Bengal India. NATH second report of the species after a lapse of 137 A. years. The present record of the specimen signifies Ecological Park, Krishnasayar, Burdwan , interesting zoogeographical implications in terms University, West Bengal, India. Reference 1 Smith, M.A. (1935): TheFaunaofBritishIndiaincluding Ceylon and Burma,Reptiliaand AmphibiaVol. 2. Sauria. Taylorand Francis, London, xii, 440 pp. 24. GALLOPHIS NIGRESCENS (GUNTHER), (SERPENTES: ELAPIDAE) A COLOUR VARIATION FROM SILENT VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, KERALA A Gunthei (1864) described the colour the tail. series of small ovate black spots, characteristics ofCallophisnigrescensashaving dark indistinctlyridgedwith awhitishtint, ispresentalong blackish ash or black upper side and uniformly red each side ofthetrunk, which disappears posteriorly. ventral side. Upper part ofthehead is symmetrically Thetail iscoloured like thebody withoutblackrings. marbled with black, a black spot below the eye, Later, Smith (1943) described three colour forms of another descending from the occipital to the angle Callophis nigrescens. (1) Pale reddish or brownish of the mouth, a black horse-shoe like marking is above with 5 black stripes on the body, a vertebral present on the collar with the convexity directed and two lateral pairs, and three stripes on the tail, A forwards. narrow black vertebral line slightly the outermost stripes being on scale rows one and edged with yellow runs from the collar to the tip of two. The top of the head is black with light regular 1 Plate Bengal West in lizard tailed Fat hardwickii 94 Eublepharis Soc. Hist. al. et nat. Chandra Bombay J. G.