29 



TROPIDOXOTUS SIFEDO^ .—Lhmaus. 



Plate VI. 



Characters. Head large, sub-oval, flattened above; snout rounded; body 

 dusky above, with a row of sub-quadrate reddish-brown blotches on the flanks, 

 connected by a transverse dirty white bar, margined with black. PI, 145. Sc. 67. 



Synonyjies. Coluber sipedon, Linnseits, Syst. Nat., torn. i. p. 379. 

 La sipede, Lac6j)Me, Hist. Nat. des Serp., torn. ii. p. 305. 

 Coluber sipedon, Gmelin, Sj^st. Nat. Linn., torn. i. pars iii. p. 1098. 

 Coluber sipedon, Latreille, Hist. Nat. Rapt, torn. iv. p. 177. 

 Coluber sipedon, Daudin, Hist. Nat. des Rept, torn. vii. p. 14S. 

 Coluber sipedon, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. iii. part ii. p. 496. 

 Natrix sipedon, Merrem, Versuch eines Syst. der Amphib., p. 124. 

 Coluber sipedon, Harlan, Med. and Phys. Res., p. 114. 

 Coluber cauda scbistosus, Harlan, Med. and Phys. Res., p. 124. 

 Water Snake, Vulgo. 



Description. The head is large, sub-oval, flattened above, with the snout 

 rounded; the vertical plate is pentagonal, broad, and nearly of the same size 

 throughout, only a little smaller behind; the superior orbital are elongated, narrow, 

 quadrilateral, broadest behind, and project over the eye; the occipital plates are 

 very large, oblong, and broadest before; the frontal are sub-pentagonal and large, 

 smaller where they descend to a single large rhomboidal, loral plate; the anterior 

 frontal are smaller, and of sub-trapezoidal form; the rostral plate is hexagonal, 

 short, small, truncated in front, rounded above and concave below; there are two 

 quadrilateral nasal plates, the anterior lunated behind, and the posterior crescentic 

 in front, to form the nostril; the anterior orbital plate is single, irregularly 



