82 COLUBER PUNCTATUS. 



orbital plates. The frontal plates are irregularly pentagonal, broadest within and 

 smallest without, where they join a large and regularly quadrilateral loral plate. 

 The anterior frontal plates arc two in number, and are smaller and quadrilateral 

 in form. The rostral is triangular, with its basis below and its apex above, and 

 rounded. There are two nasal plates; the anterior is quadrilateral, with its 

 posterior margin incurvated, and the posterior pentagonal hollowed before for 

 the nostril. The upper jaw is covered with eight large square plates, increasing 

 in size to the angle of the mouth; two of these (the fourth and fifth) ascend to 

 form the inferior wall of the orbit. There are two posterior orbital plates, the 

 superior of which is the longer, and only one anterior orbital. 



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

 the iris grey. The neck is contracted, and smaller than tlic head. The body is 

 elongated, sub-cylindrical, rounded above, and covered with smooth scales; the 

 abdomen is flattened, and covered with plates. The tail is delicate and pointed. 



Colour. The head is of a greyish-black colour, with a transverse blotch of 

 yellowish-white on each side of the occiput, uniting to form a ring; the lips are 

 white. The upper surface of the body is the same colour as the head; but this 

 varies a good deal — sometimes almost black, at others approaching a chestnut- 

 brown, finely dotted with grey. The abdomen is reddish-yellow, with three 

 parallel i-ows of dark spots of sub-triangular form, with their apices turned 

 forward, one row of which runs in the mesial line. The tail is of similar colour 

 with the body, both above and below> but wants the sub-triangular spots. 



Dimensions. Length of head, 5 lines; length of body, 6^ inches; length of tail, 

 2 inches; circumference of body, 9 lines. In the individual here described there 

 were 132 abdominal plates, and 49 sub-caudal scales. I have seen one 14 inches 

 long. 



Habits. The Coluber punctatus is a very timid animal, living great part of the 

 time concealed under the bark of trees, or old logs and stones. It emerges from 



