COLUBER QUADRILINEATUS. 219 



trace of keel, narrower on the back than on the sides; 

 ventral plates much pressed back against the lower edge of 

 the flanks, but without producing distinct angles, number- 

 ing from 222 to 250 ; two gular plates, and from seventy- 

 five to eighty-six subcaudal, divided; anal plate also divided. 

 Maxillary teeth 20 above, 25 beneath ; palatine, 12 ; ptery- 

 goid, 15. There are two varieties of this Snake, distin- 

 guished from each other by differences of colouring. 



Yar. A. The general coloui' of the upper surface is ash- 

 grey ; along the spine from head to tail runs a white band, 

 narrowed at intervals by the encroachments of the lateral 

 lines, which are of a brown tint, edged on each side with 

 black; on each flank is a series of small oblique black 

 bands, directed backwards; beneath this series is an in- 

 distinct appearance of a second lateral line ; the lower sur- 

 face is nearly white in its anterior portion, where it is 

 sprinkled with brown and blue spots; further back the 

 plates of the abdomen are dark greyish brown. M. Nord- 

 mann relates, that a short time after death these spots are 

 brightly metallic with a rosy tint ; a black mark rims from 

 one eye to the other, passing immediately before the ante- 

 rior edges of the frontal and ocular plates ; two black lines 

 begin on the frontal plate, one of which passes behind each 

 eye, and ends in front of the gape; between the lower 

 margin of the orbit and the lower lip is a black mark. 



In the young there is a distinct white band down the 

 middle of the back, with a red-brown streak on each side 

 of it, and outside this a short white stripe. 



Yar. B. The markings of this variety justify the deno- 

 mination of C Leopardinus, adopted by Fitzinger, Buona- 

 parte, &c. On the middle region of the back are a nimiber 

 of red, or red-brown spots, not unlike those of the Leopard, 

 of irregular shape, edged with black, and some of them, as 

 it were, di^ided into two parts, separated from each other 



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