30 TROPIDONOTUS SIPEDON. 



pentagonal, elongated, most extensive vertically, passing in between the frontal 

 and superior orbital, though it does not completely separate them; there are three 

 sub-round posterior orbital, behind which are two oblong, large temporal; the 

 inferior wall of the orbit is completed by the fourth and fifth labial, of which 

 plates there are eight on each side, all more or less regularly quadrilateral. 



The nostrils are lateral and near the snout. The eyes are rather large, the 

 pupil black, with the iris grey. The neck is contracted, and covered with small, 

 sub-hexagonal, strongly carinated scales. 



The body is long but robust, and covered with scales similar to those of the 

 neck, but much larger, and slightly notched posteriorly, and with broad plates 

 below. The tail is large and triangular in form, broader below and narrower 

 above. 



Colour. The head is dusky above; the jaws are olive, tinged with yellow, 

 and varied with dusky at the junction of the labial plates; the lower jaw is of 

 lighter colour. The body above is dark brown, and on each flank is a series of 

 large sub-quadrate, reddish-brown spots, extending to the abdominal plates; from 

 the superior margin of these blotches runs a light coloured transverse band to 

 connect them with the spots of the opposite side; these bands are margined with 

 black both before and behind; in the young snake the bands are very beautiful, 

 but in the adult they become more or less indistinct, but can always be seen in 

 the middle when the serpent has lately cast its skin. The throat is dirty white; 

 the ground colour of the belly is dirty white, often with a reddish-brown tinge, the 

 diflerent plates being marked with small waving lines, clouded with dusky, and 

 most so near the tail, where the markings both above and below arc finally lost. 



Dimensions. Length of head, li inches; length of body, 28 inches; length of 

 tail, 8 inches: total length, 37j inches. They are not unfrequently seen of 

 greater dimensions. In the specimen here described there were 145 abdominal 

 plates, and 67 sub-caudal bifid plates. 



