88 COLUBERSAURITA. 



pentagonal; the anterior frontals are irregularly quadrilateral, narrow in front, 

 with their posterior and external angles pointed, but not so prolonged as in the 

 Coluber Dekayi; the rostral plate is rather small and pentagonal; there are two 

 nasals, the anterior of which is small and regularly quadrilateral; the posterior 

 is also small, and irregularly pentagonal, and hollowed before for the nostril, 

 and has a small loral plate between it and the anterior orbital, which is Innated 

 and very large; there are three small posterior orbitals; and the inferior wall of the 

 orbit is completed by the fourth and fifth superior labials, of which plates there 

 are seven large ones: the anterior pentagonal; the second quadrilateral; the 

 third, fourth and fifth pentagonal; the sixth again quadrilateral; and the seventh 

 triangular. The nostrils are near the snout, lateral, but open obliquely upwards. 

 The eyes are of moderate size; the pupil is dusky, with the iris yellowish-grey 

 and brilliant. The neck is contracted, much smaller than the head, and covered 

 with small, hexagonal, carinated scales. 



The body is very long, slender, and covered above with scales of similar form 

 to those of the neck; but larger and still more so on the sides, and with plates 

 below. The tail is long, thin, and terminates in a point. 



Colour. The head above is light olive; the labial plates have a greenish- 

 yellow tinge, marked at their place of union with a dusky line; each occipital plate 

 is marked with a small yellow spot; this mark is, however, not constant: I have 

 never seen it wanting in the southern animal, but it is not always found in the 

 northern, and in some rare examples it may be double: the large anterior orbital 

 plate is olive in front, but its posterior half is yellow, which gives a peculiar 

 physiognomy to the serpent. 



The body above is dusky if seen at a distance, but if examined closely and 

 in a certain light it appears chocolate-brown, often tinged with olive, and marked 

 with three longitudinal lines; the vertebral one begins between the occipital plates, 

 is of pale greenish-yellow, and becomes obsolete an inch or two from the tail; 

 this line occupies the vertebral scale, and the half of one scale on each side has 



