72 THE PROCEEDINGS Of THE LINNEAN SOCIETY 



This cannot be considered a distinct species until a good series 

 of skins be obtained, proving this phase of plumage to be con- 

 stant. We sadly want a carefully collected and large series of 

 all these forms, with the sexes carefully determined by discretion, 

 and until this be obtained we shall not be able to arrive at any 

 definite conclusion respecting them. It would appear that this 

 golden headed phase is intermediate between the brown and 

 black headed birds, and I have also before me a crimson headed 

 bird in change from the black. If this golden headed bird were 

 not decidedly a young individual one might be induced to des- 

 cribe it as a new species, showing parallel phases of plumage 

 with P. mirabilis, and in the adult acquiring a golden instead of 

 a crimson head. Those ornithologists, therefore, who take this 

 view of the question may distinguish the golden headed forms by 

 the name of P. armitiana, in the same way that some good orni- 

 thologists, considering the black headed birds to be a distinct 

 species, distinguish them under the name of Poephila gouldice. 



Description of asupposed new species of Acanthophis, from North 



Australia. 



By E. P. Ramsay, F.L.S., &c. 



Acanthophis praelongus. sp. nov. 



Scales in 21 rows; abdominal plates, about 120; anal, 1; 

 subcaudals, undivided, 26 divided, 24-24. Head, elongate, about 

 three times as long as broad ; distance between the eye and 

 snout equal to interorbital space ; superciliaries rough, ridged, 

 much elevated, and extended over the eye ; eye, large ; pupil, 

 round ; plates of the head slightly rugose ; the body elongate, 

 scales on the back keeled in about 10 rows, the keels becoming 

 less developed towards the tail ; tail, a little over a fifth of the 

 total length. The nasal orifices large, placed a little behind the 

 middle of a large plate* General colour of the upper surface, 

 dark ashy brown, darker on the head and tail, the neck, body, 



*In Mr. Krefft's work on the Snakes of Australia, I find it stated (p. 79) that, in the 

 genus Acanthophis the "nostrils" are "bctivcen two shields." This is a mistake, as in 

 none of the numerous examples I have examined of any species of this genus are they so 

 placed. The suhcaudals arc moreover two-rowed in nearly half of their number. 



