262 A NEW AUSTRALIAN SNAKE. 



Some months ago I received from Tamworfch a specimen of a 

 snake, which I put aside without examination, referring it to H. 

 pallidicejjs, Giinth. ; being now engaged in drawing up diagnoses 

 of the members of this genus, I made an examination of this 

 specimen with the result that I discovered that my example had 

 twenty-one series of scales round the body, not fifteen as in the 

 true pallidiceps; I had in the meanwhile discovered in the Museum 

 collection a much mutilated specimen of the same snake from the 

 Dubbo district, which, wherever it was possible to examine it, 

 agreed absolutely with the Tamworth example ; this suggested to 

 me the advisability of examining Krefft's specimen, which I did 

 in the presence of Mr. Edgar R.. Waite, with the result that we 

 found that both it and another specimen labelled 2)aUidiceps in 

 the Museum collection belonged to this new species. Kreflft's 

 description of II. pallidiceps (Snakes of Australia, p. 59), being 

 merely a copy of Gunther's original diagnosis (Catalogue of 

 Colubrine Snakes, p. 214), is correct for that species, but it must 

 be borne in mind that the head figured by him (op. cit. pi. xi. 

 fig. 1) belongs rightly to H. waitii, not to H. p)aUidiceps. 



Krefft's specimen has no locality attached, and the habitat of 

 the species, therefore, so far as at present known, is restricted to 

 the central district of New South Wales, where it takes the place 

 of the North Queensland pallidicejjs. 



The measurements of the largest of the four examples are : — 

 Total length 475 mm. ; tail 62 mm. 



Type in the Australian Museum ; register number, 6590, 



