81 



COLUBER EXIMIUS.— Z>e%. 



Plate XIV. 



Characters. Head short; snout rounded; body above milk-coloured, with a 

 triple series of dark spots; vertebral range largest, and transversely oval; lateral 

 series smaller, subround, with a lighter spot in the centre; abdomen silvery-white, ^ 



each plate marked with one or more quadrilateral black spots, so arranged 

 as to give a tessellated appearance. PI. 198 — Sc. 47. 



SrNONrMEs. Coluber exiniius, Dekay, manuscript. 

 Coluber eximius, Harl., Med. and Phys. Res., p. 123. 

 Coluber calligaster, Harl., Med. and Phys. Res., p. 123. 

 House Snake or Milk Snake, Vulgo. 



Description. The head is short, with the snout rather broad and rounded; the 

 vertical plate is short, very large, nearly triangular, broad in front, and acute 

 angled behind, with two facets for joining with the occipital plates, which makes 

 it obscurely pentagonal; the superior orbital plate is large, irregularly quadri- 

 lateral, broadest behind and slightly projecting; the occipital plates are large, 

 very broad and pentagonal; there are two temporals, quadrilateral, of which the 

 upper is smaller; the frontal plates are hexagonal and large, with their internal 

 margins broadest; the anterior frontals are quadrilateral and broadest externally; 

 the rostral plate is short, thick, and rounded in front and above, and concave 

 below; the nasal plate is single, with the nostril in the centre, or has a slight 

 deficiency above; it is elongated, hexagonal, and joined posteriorly with a small 

 quadrilateral loral plate, situated in front of the anterior orbital, which is single 

 and very large; there are two posterior orbitals, of quadrilateral form and nearly of 

 equal size; there are seven labials on each side, quadrilateral, and increasing in size 

 Vol. IV.— 11 



