AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. 51 



Dumeril and Bibron state that this species inhabits Tasmania, where 

 M. Verreaux discovered it in 1844<. Many naturalists are resident in that 

 island, and collectors pay frequent visits to it, but all have failed to obtain 

 another specimen during four and twenty years. Dr. Giinther mentions 

 that the British Museum received this snake from Baranquilla, at the 

 juouth of the River Magdalena, in New Granada ; but when the American 

 genus Brachynrophw was discovered in Australia, Giinther concluded that 

 his collector deceived him, by purchasing the specimens of Furina calonotos 

 in England. So much is certain, however, — that this species does not inhabit 

 Tasmania, and is not found in Southern Victoria or New South "Wales. 



It will be as well to state here that the Furina textilis of D. & B. 

 (though differing in the number of ocular shields) is in all probability a 

 young specimen of Diemenia superciliosa with the oculars accidentally 

 divided. There is a specimen with three posterior oculars in the Museum 

 Collection. 



Verreaux's Snake. Furina bimaculata. 



Furina bimaeulata, Bum. 8f Bihr.,^. \2¥). Brachysoma bimaculatum, Gnthr., Colubr. 

 Snakes, p. 229. 



" Pale brown above, head and neck black above, with white muzzle 

 and white collar." Discovered in 184.4 in Tasmania, by M. Verreaux, no 

 other specimen has since been found. 



An example of this snake has been purchased by the British Museum, 

 the vendor giving West Australia as its habitat, which is a more likely 

 locality than Tasmania. 



BRj^LCHTrCTROPIIIS, Giinther. 



Body rounded ; head short, not distinct from neck ; tail short ; 

 rostral shield large, with a sharp anterior edge, but not recurved ; two 

 pairs of frontals ; one nasal, no loreal, it being replaced by the hinder 

 portion of the nasal. Scales smooth, rhombic, without groove, in seventeen 

 rows ; anal bifid, subcaudals two-rowed. Eye small, with circular pupil ; 

 the anterior maxillary tooth longest, grooved. 



