52 COLUBER SUMATRANUS, 



sufficient reason to suppose a great analogy between the 

 two specimens; for none of all the Crotalidae of India , des- 

 cribed in Giinthers Reptiles, has a number of ventral shields 

 between 180 and 190. The rest of Raffles' description agrees 

 so well with TV. formosus , that there can be not the slight- 

 est doubt that Muller and Schlegel's new Tr. formosus 

 from W. Sumatra is Bothrops sumatranus Raffles. 



The type specimen of Tr. formosus Mull. & Schleg. in 

 our collection is , up to this time, the only known specimen 

 of S. sumatranus. 



This B. sumatranus is characterized by having about 187 

 ventral shields, by the want of keels on the scales of the 

 head , which are small except the supraciliaria and the su- 

 pranasalia with their adjacent scales '). The second upper 

 labial shield forms the front part of the facial pit. The 

 general color is green with a great number of black cross- 

 bands and a reddish tail. All the scales of the body are 

 edged with black. 



It cannot be denied that there exists a great resem- 

 blance in coloration between B. Wagleri and B. sumatranus, 

 but as we have but one specimen of B. sumatranus {Tr. 

 formosus M. & Schl.) it is impossible to know whether the 

 same variations in coloration exist in this species as they 

 do in the allied B. Wagleri. Yet it would not be to be 

 wondered at when there afterwards were found young spe- 

 cimens of B. sumatramis of a uniform greenish color , just 

 as the young B. Wagleri. 



In the collection of the Leyden Museum there are 9 

 specimens of a pitviper, showing a great analogy in colo- 

 ration with B. erythrurus and B. gramineus but differing 

 from these species by having a reddish tail, and by the 

 number of ventral shields. 



I supposed them to be specimens of a still undescribed 

 species of pitvipers, and made a description of them un- 



1) See: Jan, Iconogr. géne'r d. Ophidiens, livr. 47, pi. 5 fig. 1, where the 

 different parts of Tr. formosus (made after the type) are very correctly figured. 

 Notes from the Leydexi IMui^eum, "Vol. VIII. 



