60 COLUBRID A. 
Coluber Dumfrisiensis. Sowerb. 
Many years since a small Snake, having the characters 
of one of the Colubride, was taken by Mr. J. W. Sim- 
mons, near Dumfries. It was published as a new species 
by Mr. Sowerby in his British Miscellany, and figured in 
the third plate of that work. It was there named Coluber 
Dumfrisiensis. The specimen remained until within the 
last few years in the possession of Mr. Sowerby’s family; 
but having come into my hands, it was unfortunately lost 
or mislaid, and I have never since been able to recover it. 
There is, I think, great reason to believe that it was a 
very young Natri# torquata, but differig certainly in 
many respects from the usual appearance and characters of 
that species. It was about three or four inches in length; 
“of a pale brown colour, with pairs of reddish brown 
stripes from side to side, over the back, somewhat zigzag, 
with intervening spots on the sides.” The most remark- 
able peculiarity mentioned, however, is that ‘“ the scales are 
extremely simple, not carinated.” The abdominal plates 
were one hundred and sixty-two; those under the tail . 
about eighty. This is all the information at present 
possessed respecting the species, if it be mdeed a species. 
Mr. Jenyns, in his excellent Manual, expresses the opinion 
which I have given above, that it is ‘probably an imma- 
ture variety of the common species.” 
See Sowerby’s Brit. Miscell. p.3, t. 1.5; also Loudon’s 
Mag. Nat. Hist. II. p. 438, where the original figure is 
copied. 
