142 RENA. 



Genus REl^A, Baird & Girard. 



Gen. Char. Head slightly depressed and continuous with the 

 body. Snout blunt and rounded, overlapping considerably the lower 

 jaw. A large rostral plate. One nasal. A pair of fronto-nasals. One 

 eye shield, or ocular. A pair of parietals. A pair of postparietals. 

 Medial row of scales extending over the head to the rostral. Nostrils 

 lateral, oblong, situated between the nasal and fronto-nasal. Eyes 

 not conspicuous. Mouth inferior, semilunar. 



1. Rena dulcis, B. & G. — Reddish brown above; reddish white be- 

 neath. Fifteen rows of scales. Body depressed. Eye shield separated by 

 a small plate from the series representing the vertical. 



Body slender, elongated, rather stouter posteriorly than anteriorly, 

 depressed, broader than deep. Tail very short, subeonical, bluntly 

 terminated, about o'g of the total length. Rostral rounded, taper- 

 ing, separating the fronto-nasals for nearly their whole length. 

 Fronto-nasals proportionally large, tapering upwards, and undulat- 

 ing. Nasal subtriangular, nostril situated on the middle of its upper 

 margin, close to the fronto-nasal. Eye shield large, elevated, irregu- 

 larly oblong, extending to the top of the head from the margin of 

 the jaw. Parietal and postparietal similar, transversally elongated, 

 the postparietal somewhat larger. Four shield-shaped scales in a 

 longitudinal series between the postparietals, parietals, eyeshield, 

 fronto-nasals on each sides, and the rostral in front, occupy the place 

 of the vertical. On the crown, and just above the eye-shield, is a 

 small semilunar plate, separating it from the series just described, 

 and probably the homologue of the supraorbital. The margin of the 

 upper jaw is formed in front by the rostral; on the sides next to the 

 rostral by the nasal, behind which is a subquadrangular, obliquely ele- 

 vated labial, limited above by the fronto-nasal, and posteriorly by the 

 eye-shield, which enters likewise in the upper labial aeries. Pos- 

 terior to the eye-shield is a subtriangular labial at the angle of the 

 jaw, approximating above the parietal, and limited behind by the 



