38 AUSTEALIAN SNAKES. 



DIBl*a:BlsrijaL,* Ch-ay. 



Body and tail moderate or slender, rounded ; head high, quadran- 

 gular, with rather short rounded muzzle ; rostral moderate, vertical, 

 narrow; no loreal, which is replaced by the conjunction of posterior 

 frontal (bent down on the sides), of anterior ocular, of second (triangular) 

 upper labial, and of posterior nasal ; one anterior, two posterior oculars ; 

 two nasals, nostrils between ; scales smooth, not much imbricated, in 

 fifteen or seventeen rows ; anal bifid ; subcaudals two-rowed ; grooved fang 

 in front, a series of smaller equal teeth behiud. 



Schlegel's Snake. Diemenia psammophis. 



Elaps psammophis, Schlegel, Ess. II, p. 45, and Abbild., t. 46, fig. 14. Pseudoelaps 

 psammophidius, Bum. ^ Bihr., p. 1234. Diemansia (Diemenia) psammophis, G-nthr., Cat. 

 of Golubr. Snakes in Col. Brit. Mus., p. 212. 



Scales in 15 rows. 



Two anal plates. 



Abdominals, 223. 



Subcaudals, 97/97. 



Total length, 6 feet 7 inches. 



Head, 1^ inch. 



Tail, IG inches. 



Body elongate and slender ; head shields very elongate, vertical 

 broad anteriorly, becoming narrow towards behind ; eye large, pupil 

 rounded ; preocular shield deeply grooved, also a groove on the lower 

 edge of the rostral shield, six upper and lower labials with a large tem- 

 poral shield between the two last of the upper series. General colour 

 brown above ; sides and abdominal plates of the anterior half of the body 

 bluish grey, the abdominals somewhat lighter in the centre ; all the upper 

 scales on this part red-edged ; the posterior part much Ughter in colour, 

 and the scales dimly margined with bluish grey, the marking appearing 

 very prominent wherever a portion of the epidermis has been removed ; 

 the abdominal plates assume a yellow hue, are at first powdered or clouded 

 with black, and become clearer towards the tail, which from the vent 

 to the tip is pale straw yellow. Dr. Gray's short description is as follows : — 

 " Habit very slender ; forehead very convex. Above nearly greenish olive ; 

 rostral shield without cross streak." 



*Tlus is the correct spelling of the word, wliich evidently has heen derived from Van Bienien ('s Land). 

 Originally written Demansia by Dr. Gray, it has since been altered into Diemansia by myself (Colubr. 

 Snakes, p. 254), and into Diemenniaby the Editor of the Proceedings of the Zoological Society (1863). (GiMher.) 



