88 BARBOUR — A BORNEAN LIZARD rVol^VlF' 



inz., pracf rentals widely separated, is really the normal condi- 

 tion, as is shown by six examples from Professor Harrison 

 Smith's collection. Nevertheless, since I do not know how many 

 specimens Miss De Rooij had, I am at a loss to determine 

 whether possibly this character is linked with some definite 

 area of distribution. Smith's lot came, five from Mt. Lundu, 

 and one from Baram, whence the species has previously been 

 recorded. To cite another occasion where Miss De Rooij has, 

 unfortunately, copied Boulenger, in what may have been a 

 lapsus, both speak of Cylindrophis rufus as having an eye equal 

 in diameter to half its distance from the nostril. In our large 

 series not one has an eye nearly so large. Again, in this species 

 the ventrals are spoken of as being larger than the surrounding 

 scales, whereas, in fact, they are so very little larger except in 

 extremely young specimens, that the character has no con- 

 spicuous diagnostic value. These, also, have eyes a little larger 

 than in the adults. Thus unfortunately do errors perpetuate 

 themselves, which at first sight appear trivial but which multi- 

 ply synonyms as the years pass. I confess, frankly, to having 

 already sought names for another new Tropidophorus and a 

 new Cylindrophis until I had gone farther than I was led by 

 these otherwise most useful keys. 



The lizard which I believe undescribed, I shall call 



Tropidophorus perplexus sp. nov. 



Type, a single male specimen, M. C. Z., no. 14,632, from a hill near the 

 Fort at Long Loba, Tinjar River, Sarawak. "Very swift. Taken when 

 splitting open a rotten log. Caught with difficulty." — H. W. Smith. 



Shields of head rugose; frontonasal divided, the pair as broad as long; 

 praefrontals considerably in contact; frontal as long as frontoparietals and 

 interparietal together; five supraoculars, first largest; five or six super- 

 ciliaries anterior to the fourth supraocular, which itself borders the eye; 

 frontoparietals shorter than interparietal; parietals broadly in contact 

 behind the latter; six upper labials, fifth very large and entering the orbit; 

 four lower labials, second and third extremely long and narrow; tympanum 

 nearly as large as eye opening; body moderately slender, with thirty rows 

 of scales around the middle; dorsal and laterals strongly keeled, ten median 



