3& AUSTEALIAN SNAKES. 



" Pale (in spirits). Back with five longitudinal series of dark olive 

 spots, which are more or less confluent, forming cross bands, closer 

 together on the hinder part of the body, appearing olive with irregular 

 whitish lines ; head with a black streak above the lip, through the eye, to 

 the side of the neck ; head-shields brown, with a black spot ; loreal shield 

 square ; anterior ocular large ; posterior oculars 3, small ; interloreal 

 scales 2, small. The front of the body has a narrow longitudinal streak 

 on each side, between the spots." — Gray's Description of the Brit. Miis. 

 Specimens. 



The few specimens in the Museum collection are the gift of 

 William Macleay, Esq., F.L.S., who obtained them from Port Denison. 

 The general form is shorter and thicker than the Rock Snakes treated of 

 before, and iu all probability the size of old individuals does not exceed 5 or 

 () feet. The ground color is a pale olive or brown, with five rows of irregvdar 

 brown or black spots from the head to the tip of the tail, beneath it is pale 

 straw yellow. The head is regularly shielded to between the eyes, and 

 three of the hinder shields and the lower lip are pitted. The tail is very 

 short, the plates and the under side of it forming partly two rows, with a 

 dark central streak from the vent to the tip. Head- shields with a few 

 black spots and margins ; eye of moderate size, with elliptical and erect 

 pupil ; a dark streak runs from behind the eye to the nostril. About the 

 habitat of this reptile little is known, beyond the donor's statement that 

 it was obtained at Port Denison.* 



* Captain Edwards, of the schooner " Melania" (who has always been a liberal donor to the Museum), 

 obtained a species of Nardoa on Sweer's Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Tliis snake differs from N. gilbertii 

 in having a shorter and thicker head, a more elongate vertical sliield, and the last pair of frontals largest ; the 

 color is a dull olive-brown, the dark spots very indistinct, and not confluent posteriorly ; no black marks can be 

 traced on the head, except the temporal streak behind the eye. 



Captain Edwards has promised to supply the Trustees with more specimens, when the question whether 

 this snake ia new or not will be decided. 



