49 



TROPIDONOTUS LEBERIS.—Linnmis. 



Plate XIII. 



Characters. Head moderate, elongated, sub-oval; neck contracted; body 

 above dusky olive-brown, with three black hnes; abdomen pale yellow, with four 

 dusky lines; scales strongly carinated. PL 143. Sc. 70. 



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

 Coluber leberis, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. Lin., torn. i. pars iii. p. 1086. 

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

 Vipera leljcris, Daudin, Hist. Nat. des Rept., torn. vi. p. 218. 

 Coluber leberis, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. iii. part ii. p. 433. 

 Coluber septemvittatus, Say, Journ. Acad. Nat. Scien. Philad., vol. iv. p. 420. 

 Coluber septemvittatus, Harlan, Med. and Phys. Res., p. IIS. 



Description. The head is rather small, elongated, sub-oval and with the snout 

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

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

 narrow, elongated, and quadrilateral. The frontal plates are irregularly hexa- 

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

 loral; the anterior frontal are quadrilateral, but irregularly so, broader behind and 

 narrower before. The rostral plate is heptagonal, short, and rounded in front as 

 well as above, and concave below; the occipital 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 nostril. There are two small, elongated, quadrilateral 

 anterior orbital; and in front of them is a large pentagonal, loral plate; there are 

 Vol. IV.— 7 



