DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SNAKE FROM THE 

 HERBERT RIVER DISTRICT. 



By J. Douglas Ogilby, F.L.S. 



It is to the kindness of Sir William Macleay that I am indebted 

 for the pleasure of describing this new Water-Snake. The ex- 

 ample described is in the collection of the Australian Museum, to 

 which it was presented by Sir William, but I have also had the 

 opportunity of examining two other specimens, forwarded at the 

 same time, and now deposited in the Macleay Museum at the 

 Sydney University ; these three specimens were collected by 

 Mr. J. A. Boyd of Ripple Creek, Herbert River, Queensland, 

 and were originally exhibited as a new species of Fordonia at the 

 Linnean Society's Meeting of March 27th, 1889. 



PSEUDOFERANIA, gen.nov. 



Differs from Ferania in having the scales in twenty-one rows, 

 in having an extra shield on the head interposed between the 

 posterior frontals, and in having two pre- and one post-oculars. 



PsEUDOFERANiA MACLEAYi, gen.et sp.nov. 



Scales in 21 series ; abdominal plates 147 ; anal bifid ; sub- 

 caudal plates in two rows 38/38. Body stout, slightly compressed ; 

 head short, but little distinct from the neck ; tail rather short, 

 very much smaller and more strongly compressed than the body ; 

 muzzle short, broad, and truncate ; eye small, situated on the 

 upper angle of the, head, the pupil vertical. Nostril on the upper 

 surface of the head, in the centre of a large nasal, which is 

 divided by a deep groove on its outer half, and forms a broad 



