52 AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. 



Australian Short-tailed Snake. Brachyurophis australis. 



(Plate XI, figs. 3, 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d.) 

 Simotes australis, Krefft, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1864^, p. ISO. 

 Brachyurophis australis, Gthr., Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 3rd Series, vol. XV, p. 97. 



Scales in 17 rows. 



Abdominal plates, 160 to 163. 



Two anal plates. 



Subcauclals, in two series, 18/18. 



Total length, 11^ inches. 



Head, 4 lines. 



Tail, 1| inch. 



Body cylindrical, I'ounded ; head short, conical, not distinct from 

 neck ; tail short, ending in a blunt point. Rostral shield much produced, 

 flat in front, pointed behind, reaching backwards to between the anterior 

 frontals, and sHghtly grooved at its base. One nasal, one anterior, and two 

 posterior oculars ; two temporals (in one specimen a third smaller one 

 behind). Eye small ; pupil subelliptical, erect ; no loreal — replaced by the 

 nasal and anterior ocular ; six upper labials, the third and fourth coming 

 into the orbit ; occipitals short, not much rounded behind, and but slightly 

 forked. The general color is red, very bright on the posterior pai't of the 

 body and tail ; all the scales are slightly margined — some, much darker than 

 others, have a whitish (in spirits) spot in the middle, and form into a 

 series of half rings, of which there are about fifty-six upon the body and 

 tail. The head is covered by a black band across the occiput, leaving the 

 snout free, commencing from below the eye, and marking the fourth and 

 filth upper labials, the vertical, and nearly the whole of the occipitals ; 

 this black band is divided from a second band covering the neck by a 

 whitish space. 



The first specimen of this snake was discovered on the Clarence 

 River ; since then another example has been received from the Burdekin 

 River in Queensland. The northern one is darker in colour, has six upper 

 and lower labials and one nasal shield. The Clarence River specimen is 

 somewhat injured, and there appear to be two nasal shields instead of one ; 

 the upper labials are five in number, and the lower six. 



