Dr. A. Giinther on new Reptiles and Fishes from Mexico. 443 



lary tooth longest and strongest, in a continuous series with the other 

 teeth, not grooved. Dirty-white, with numerous hlack cross-hands, 

 extending on to the ventral plates ; belly uniform whitish. 



Hah. Oaxaca (Mexico). 



Description. — The head is rather broad and depressed, the snout 

 rounded ; the eye is of moderate size, its vertical diameter being 

 about one-third the width between the eyes ; the trunk is rounded, 

 and, like the tail, somewhat slender. The rostral shield reaches 

 just to the upper surface of the snout ; the frontals are nearly square : 

 the anterior pair are one-third the size of the posterior, which are 

 slightly bent downwards to the side of the head ; the vertical is pen- 

 tagonal, longer than broad ; the occipitals rounded posteriorly. 

 Nostril situated between two nasals ; loreal quadrangular ; one an- 

 terior and two posterior oculars ; seven or eight upper labial shields,, 

 the third and fourth or the fourth and fifth entering the orbit. There 

 is one elongate temporal shield in contact with both the oculars ; the 

 other temporals, five in number, are scale-like. The medial lower 

 labial is triangular and rather small ; nine lower labials, the first of 

 which is in contact with its fellow behind the median shield. There 

 are two pairs of chin-shields, of nearly equal size. The scales are in 

 nineteen rows, smooth, rhombic, those of the sides similar to those 

 on the back. The number of the ventral plates varies between 182 

 and 179, that of the caudal between 88 and 87. 



The ground-colour of the upper parts is dirty-white : the upper 

 part of the head is brown ; there is a whitish collar behind the occi- 

 pitals. Fifty-one or fifty-four black bands cross the trunk and ex- 

 tend on to the edge of the belly ; they are broader than the inter- 

 spaces between, and become interrupted and spot-like on the tail. 

 All the lower parts are uniform whitish. 



in. lin. 



Total length 21 1 



Length of the head 7 



Greatest width of the head 5 J 



Length of the trunk 14 6 



of the tail 6 



This species might be easily taken for a variety of Leptodeira an- 

 nulata or Leptodeira torquata*, exhibiting nearly the same phy- 

 siognomy, and externally differing only in its more slender body; 

 fewer scales, and somewhat modified coloration. Nevertheless we 

 should be obliged to refer these snakes to different genera, if we were 

 to adopt the dentition as the chief systematic principle : namely, 

 L. annulata to Dipsas> L. torquata to Liophis, and L. discolor to 

 Coronella. 



PISCES. 



Chromis nebtjlifera, sp. nov. 



J>.jf. A. \. V. 1/5. L. lat. 35. L. transv. 6/13. 



Mouth narrow, protractile ; teeth of the jaws cardiform, in a short 



* Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. March 1860, p.169, pi. x. fig. A. 



29* 



