AUSTEALIAN SNAKES. C.} 



Body elongate and rounded; head and tail not distinct from trunk; 

 scales rather elongate, and not much imbricated ; shields of the head 

 regular, vertical nearly twice as long as broad, and not larger than the super- 

 ciliaries ; rostral very low, scarcely reaching to the top of the snout ; 

 posterior frontals much larger than the anterior ones ; nostrils in the 

 middle of a single nasal shield ; one pre and two post oculars ; temporals 

 2 + 2 ; uniform dark olive brown above, bluish powdered with black below ; 

 tan salmon-colored towards the tip ; a dark-edged white streak from 

 below the nostril through the labials to the side of the neck ; eye of 

 moderate size, with a bright brown spot above the pupil. 



The present species is peculiar to Tasmania, and allied to Hoplo- 

 cephaliis Mastersii and H. signatus ; it differs from H. 3Iastersii in not 

 having a collar, and from H. signatus in having only one white streak 

 on each side of the head, as also in its more elongate vertical, and the 

 much smaller size. 



Masters' Snake. Soplocephalus mastersii. 



(Plate Xn, fig. 6.) 

 Hoplocephalus mastersii, Krefft, Proc. Zool. Soc, 26 June, 1860. 

 Scales in 15 rows. 

 Abdominal plates, 136. 

 One anal plate. 

 Subcaudal plates, 40 or more. 

 Total length, 14 inches. 

 Head, \ inch. 

 Tail, 2 inches. 



Head triangular, distinct from trunk, and pointed in front ; vertical 

 three times as long as broad ; all the scales of the head much elongate ; 

 six upper and seven lower labials, and one anterior and two postoculars, 

 the anterior one grooved. 



Dark ohA^e-green above and below, with the exception of a 

 yellowish-white elongate patch in the middle of each ventral scale ; aU the 

 scales are very finely striated or keeled (which is not discernible with the 



