103 



COLUBER RHOMBO-MACULATUS. 



Plate XX. 



Characters. Head short, small; body elongated, covered with smooth scales 

 above and plates below; superior surface chestnut-brown, with a vertebral series 

 of rhomboid light brown spots; abdomen salmon-coloured. PI. 211 — Sc. 45. 



Description. The head is small, short, with the snout truncated; the vertical 

 plate is broad and regularly pentagonal, acute angled posteriorly; the superior 

 orbitals are elongated, quadrilateral, broader behind, narrower before, and of 

 the same length as the vertical, and project but slightly over the eye; the 

 occipitals are large, pentagonal, and receive the acute angle of the vertical plate; 

 the frontals are large, pentagonal, broad above and narrow below; the anterior 

 frontals are smaller, quadrilateral, and larger below than above; the rostral plate 

 is pentagonal, blunt before, broadest and slightly concave below; there are two 

 nasal plates, quadrilateral, nearly of the same form and size; one is lunated 

 before and the other behind; the anterior orbital plate is single, quadrilateral, 

 slightly lunated behind, and large, Avith a square loral plate in front; there are two 

 pentagonal posterior orbitals, the upper rather larger; the inferior wall of the 

 orbit is completed by the third and fourth labial plates, of which there are six on 

 each side, increasing in size from the snout to the angle of the mouth; the first 

 is trapezoidal, the second quadrilateral, and the rest are all pentagonal. The 

 nostrils are lateral near the snout, and open a little upwards and backwards. 

 The eyes are rather small; the pupil dusky, with the iris hazel. The neck is 

 not contracted. 



The body is elongated, cylindrical, covered above with smooth hexagonal 



