105 



COLUBER LEBERIS.—Linnmis. 

 Plate XXL 



Characters. Head rather small, elongated, oval; body above dusky olive- 

 brown, with three black lines; abdomen pale yellow, with four dusky lines; scales 

 strongly carinated. PI. 143 — Sc. 70. 



Synonymes. Coluber leberis, Linn., Syst. Nat., torn. i. p. 216, ed. x. 

 Coluber leberis, Gmel., ed. Syst. Nat. Linn., torn. i. part iii. p. 1086. 

 Vipera leberis, Latr., Hist. Nat. Rept., torn. iv. p. 8. 

 Vipera leberis, Daud., Hist. Nat. des Rept., torn. vi. p. 2 IS. 

 Coluber leberis, Shaiv, Gen. ZooL, vol. iii. part ii, p. 

 Coluber septemvittatus. Say, Jour. Acad. Nat. So., Phila., vol. iv. p. 340. 

 Coluber septemvittatus, Harl., Med. and Phys. Res., p. 118. 



Description. The head is rather small, elongated, suboval, with the snout 

 rounded at the tip; the vertical plate is regularly pentagonal, and broadest 

 before; the superior orbitals are of the same length as the vertical, but very 

 narrow, elongated and quadrilateral; the frontal plates are irregularly hexagonal, 

 broadest transversely, descending far on the side of the head to join the loral; 

 the anterior frontals are quadrilateral, but irregularly so, broader behind, 

 narrower before; the rostral plate is heptagonal, short, and rounded in front as 

 well as above, and concave below; the occipitals are pentagonal, smaller, and 

 notched behind; the nasal plates are two in number, quadrilateral, and nearly of 

 the same size; the anterior lunated behind and the posterior crescentic in front, 

 to accommodate the nostrils, which are lateral, near the snout, and open a little 

 upwards; there are two small, elongated, quadrilateral anterior orbitals; and in 

 front of them is a large pentagonal loral plate; there are two posterior orbitals. 

 Vol. IV.— 14 



