53 



TROPIDONOTUS DEKAYI.— //o/iroo^. 



Plate XIV. 



Characters. Head elongated; snout rounded; body olive-brown above, with a 

 pale vertebral line, on each side of which is a double series of small sub-quadrate 

 or rounded black spots; abdomen straw colour, with a tinge of green; and each 

 plate marked with four minute black dots, arranged to form four irregular longi- 

 tudinal rows, which terminate at the tail; no loral plate. PI. 139. Sc. 46. 



Description. The head is rather large, narrow, and with the snout rounded. 

 The vertical plate is pentagonal, broad before and pointed behind; the occipital 

 plates are very long and pentagonal, broader before and narrower behind; the 

 superior orbital are quadrilateral, very long, and projecting; the frontal plates are 

 broad and pentagonal, with their superior border longest and their inferior 

 shortest; narrow externally where they pass down to join with the posterior nasal 

 plate; the anterior frontal are rhomboidal, with their inferior and posterior angles 

 prolonged; the rostral plate is large, rather pentagonal, and pointed above; the 

 nasal plates are two in number, nearly quadrilateral, with an opening between 

 them for the nostril; the anterior orbital is single, quadrilateral, and large; there 

 are two posterior orbital plates, nearly of the same size, but much smaller, and the 

 inferior walls of the orbit are completed by the third and fourth superior labial 

 plates, of which there are si.x, all quadrilateral, the fourth and fifth being longest. 



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

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

 with small carinated scales. 



