92 AMARAL NEW GENERA AND SPECIES OF SNAKES [ VoMnn' 



Sibynomorphus * barbouri sp. nov. 



Body slender, compressed laterally; head distinct from neck; pterygoid 

 teeth present; eye large, with vertical pupil. Rostral twice as broad as 

 deep, scarcely visible from above; internasals half as long as the pre- 

 frontals; frontal hexagonal, a little longer than broad, as long as its dis- 

 tance from the end of the snout, much shorter than the parietals; nasal 

 semi-divided; loreal large, as long as deep; no praeocular; 2 postoculars; 

 temporals, 2 + 2/2 + 3; 8/9 upper labials, 3d, 4th and 5th entering the 

 orbit; 1st lower labial in contact with its fellow behind the symphysial; 

 4 pairs of chin shields, anterior a little longer than broad. Scales in 15 rows, 

 vertebral moderately enlarged; ventrals, 196; anal entire; subcaudals, 

 118 pairs. 



Cream-colored above, with a dorsal series of large transverse dark brown 

 spots extending down to the sides of the ventrals, sometimes interrupted 

 on the vertebral line and so alternating with those of the opposite side; 

 head brownish yellow with small dark dots on the parietals; yellowish be- 

 neath, laterally lineolated with brown. 



Total length, 600 mm.; tail, 185 mm. 



Type, adult, no. 306 in the collection of the Instituto de Butantan, sent 

 from Utinga, State of Alagoas, Brazil, by Mr. J. E. Coutinho, in October, 

 1913. 



This species is named in honor of my friend Dr. Thomas 

 Barbour, to whom I am indebted for much advice and many 

 facilities during the studies I have been undertaking at the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard University. 



1 This generic name is to be used in preference to Leptognathus, Cochliophagus, Strem- 

 matognathus and Anholodon, in obedience to the international rules of zoological nomen- 

 clature. In effect, Leptognathus Dum. et Bibr., 1853 (M6moires Acad. Scient., XXIII, 

 p. 467), was preoccupied by Swainson (1839) for a genus of fishes and by Westwood (1841) 

 for a genus of insects, as C. Berg (Comunic. del Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires, no. 8, 1901, 

 p. 291) and J. F. Gomes (Rev. do Museu Paulista, t. X, 1918, p. 526) have already 

 pointed out; and all of them, Cochliophagus Dum. et Bibr., 1854 (type, inaequifasciatus), 

 Stremmatognathus Dijm. et Bibr., 1854 (type, catesbyi) and Anholodon Dum. et Bibr., 1854 

 (type, mikanii), as well as Leptognathus, have been proposed as generic names, respectively, 

 eleven and ten years after Fitzinger (Systema Reptilium, I, 1843, p. 27) originated the 

 monotypical genus Sibynomorphus with the type species mikanii. 



I take this opportunity to thank Dr. E. R. Dunn for much information which he kindly 

 Bent me about this question. 



