XIII. PH AY RE A I S ABELLI N A , THEO- 

 BALD, RE-DEvSCRIBED. 



By Colonel F. Wall, CMC, I. M.S. 



Theobald in 1868 alluded to a snake in his Catalogue of Rep- 

 tiles in the Asiatic Society's Museum (p. 51) for which he proposed 

 the name Phayrta isahellina. His remarks are so brief that they 

 do not amount to a description, and he has made a serious mistake 

 in one \-ery important particular, viz. in the number of the costal 

 rows. Boulenger on the data available made a guess at its iden- 

 tity, and in his Catalogue refers to it under the name of Psamniophis 

 condanarus (Cat. Vol. Ill, 1896, p. 165). 



I have recently examined the type-specimen in the Indian 

 Museum, and find that it is not an Opisthoglyph species at all, but 

 is nearly allied to the Aglyphous genus Tropidonotns. The speci- 

 men is faded, and the surface of the scales rubbed, but otherwise 

 is in good preservation. 



Description. — Head moderately elongate. Snout moderately 

 rounded. Eye moderate with round (?) pupil. Neck hardly 

 evident. Body of moderate girth and of nearly uniform calibre 

 throughout. Belly rounded. Tail moderate, being about one- 

 fourth the total length. 



Lepidosis. — Roslrnl. Depth about two-thirds the breadth ; 

 touching six shields ; portion visible above subequal to the suture 

 between the internasals. Inlernasals. Two ; the suture between 

 them three-fourths that between the praef rental pair, four-fifths the 

 internaso praefrontals Pracfrontah. Two; the suture between 

 them about five-thirds the praefronto-frontal sutures ; in contact 

 with the postnasal, loreal, praeocular, and supraocular. Frontal. 

 Rather longer than the snout, rather shorter than the parietals : 

 in contact with six shields, the fronto-supraocular sutures three 

 times the length of the fronto-parietals. Nasals. Divided ; the 

 posterior shield rather deeper and longer than the anterior. Nostril 

 entirely in the anterior shield, and in the upper two-thirds of the 

 suture. Loreal. Small, square, less than half the length of the 

 nasals. Praeocular, one. Postoculars, two. Temporal, one. Supra- 

 labials^ eight ; the second and third touch the loreal, third and 

 fourth the praeocular, fourth and fifth the eye, and the sixth and 

 seventh the temporal. Posterior Sublinguals. Subequal to the ante- 

 rior, touching the fifth and sixth infralabials. Infralabials, six, 

 the sixth about three-fourths the length, and twice the breadth of 

 the posterior sublinguals, in contact with two scales posteriorly. 



Costals. — In ig rows two heads-lengths behind the head, 19 in 

 midbody, 17 two heads-lengths before the vent. Vertebrals not 



