54 pRocEEDmas or the academy op 



anal scBte ; tail slender and tapering to a point, of moderate length, not half the 

 length of neck and body. 



Chlorophis heterodermus, nob. 



S^). Char. Color green; 15 rows of scales, many of the scales marked -with 

 ■white, more especially upon their external border, sometimes both the internal 

 and external. Total length 1 foot 9^ inches ; abdom. sc. 157, sub-caud. 83. 



Dimensions. Length of head 7 lines ; breadth 4 ; of tail 5 inches 9 lines. 



Habitat. Gaboon. One specimen presented by Dr. Henry A. Ford. 



Gen. Remarks. We at first supposed that this serpent might be identical with 

 the Dendrophis Chenonii, Reinhardt, from Guinea, but the nasal in that 

 species is between two nasal plates, and according to Dumerii and Bibron, the 

 preanal scute is double. They also state that were it not for the difference in 

 the teeth, they would consider it a true Dendrophis; now Dendrophis has a 

 much larger row of scales along the middle line of the back, which Chlorophis 

 has not. Dumerii and Bibron also mention that in Leptophis Chenonii there 

 are 154 urostega — M. Reinhardt, 108 — 126. 



Fam. LYCODONTIANS. 



Among the serpents in the collection of Dr. Ford, are three different genera 

 of Lycodontians, three of different ages belonging to the genus Boedon, and two 

 of undescribed genera. We propose to give an account of them, and also a 

 Boedon presented some time ago by Dr. Burtt, U. S. Navy, from the Isle de Los. 



The family of Lycodontians is characterized by Dumerii and Bibron as "ser- 

 pents with smooth teeth, or unchannelled, always unequal, the anterior longer 

 than those which follow, distributed in numerous series upon the jaws, and 

 without vacant spaces between them. Body cylindrical ; head larger behind 

 than the neck," the essential characters being the existence of smooth teeth 

 (Aglyphodonts) " of unequal force and length in both jaws." Erpet. Gen. tom. 

 vii. p. 357. The Lycodontians are divided into four tribes : 1, Boedonians ; 2, 

 Lycodontians; 3, Eugnathians ; 4, Pareasians. In the Boedonians the palatine 

 teeth are unequal, the submaxillary teeth separated; those above not separated. In 

 the Lycodontians these teeth are distinct, isolated ; the anterior pterjgo-pala- 

 tine teeth not longer than those which follow ; the submaxillary teeth unequal. 

 In the Eugnathians the submaxillary teeth are not separated by a free space, 

 the pterygo-palatine equal; and in the Pareasians, as in the Eugnathians, the 

 mandibular teeth are much longer in front than those which succeed them, but 

 in the former the anterior pterygo-palatine teeth are much longer. 



The essential characters of the sub-genus Boedon, belonging to the first 

 tribe Boedonians, and the family Lycodontians, the ninth of the Aglyphodont 

 Ophidians, in Dumerii and Bibron's arrangement, consist in having "the four or 

 five superior maxillary teeth longer by half than those which follow, and which 

 are nearly equal among themselves and regularly spaced ; then a free interval ; 

 the four or five first palatine teeth longer ; the five first inferior maxillaries longer 

 and more curved." 



Bo.lilDON QUADRIVITTATUM, nob. 



Char. Two white vittffi bordered with fuscous on each side of the head, the 

 inferior commencing behind the eye and extending as far as the angle of the jaw, 

 the superior passing over the eye and upon the temple, expanded inwardly upon 

 the occiput, forming two large white irregular blotches, one on each side, uniting 

 with its fellow on the opposite side, upon the internasals and prefrontals, poste- 

 riorly extending about 1|^ inch upon the neck, where it is lost. Body and tail 

 uniformly brown above, white beneath with dark colored maculations. 27 rows 

 of scales; a single preanal scute. Total length 2 feet 8^ inches. 



Description.. The head is of moderate size, depressed, covered above with nine 

 plates ; the internasals are considerably smaller than the prefrontals ; the latter 

 are in contact laterally and interiorly with the fren il, posteriorly with the 

 frontal, and by their postero-external margin, which is incurvated, with the 



[February, 



