OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 219 



PAPERS READ. 



Notes on a Collection of Snakes from Port Darwin, 

 By William Macleay, F.L.S. 



Among the many interesting and valuable things collected at 

 Port Darwin by Mr. Spalding, not the least interesting to me 

 are the Snakes. I have received of them about 30 good 

 specimens, belonging to at least 12 distinct species. Some 

 are of wide distribution and well known, or at all events well 

 known to me — such as Morelia variegata, Tropidonotus pictu- 

 ratus, Dipsas fusca, and Diemenia olivacea. The first of these 

 is found everywhere throughout New Holland, the second all 

 over Northern Queensland (a very variable species), the third 

 also throughout the whole of tropical Australia, and of the last 

 I bad previously seen several specimens from the Endeavour 

 River. Others are, though described, very rare and in few 

 collections, and were until a few days ago, only known to me by 

 their descriptions. These are Nardoa Gilbertii, two fine speci- 

 mens, Cerberus Australis, also two specimens varying very much 

 in colour, and Pseudonaja nuchalis. Of this last I have only 

 one specimen. It is of a lightish colour, but distinctly banded. 

 There are 201 abdominal shields and 62-62 sub-caudals. Some 

 specimens in the Australian Museum, labelled P. nuchalis by the 

 late Curator, belong evidently to the other species P. affinis, 

 Gunther, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1872, ser. -i, vol. ix., p. 35, 

 pi. iv., fig. c. 



The species which appear to me to be new are as follow : — 



FORDONIA VARIABILIS. 



In the form and disposition of the head shields and the 

 numbers of the scales and abdominal and sub-caudal shields, the 

 three specimens which I have received from Port Darwin agree 

 exactly with the description given by Dumeril and Bibron (Hist. 

 Nat. de Rept., vol. 7, p. 884) of a species from Timor — Fordonia 

 leucobalia Schlegel — the genus Remiodontus Dum. and Bibr. 



