82 COLUBER PUNCTATUS. 
orbital plates. The frontal plates are irregularly pentagonal, broadest within and 
smallest without, where they join a large and regularly quadrilateral loral plate. 
The anterior frontal plates are two in number, and are smaller and quadrilateral 
in form. The rostral is triangular, with its basis below and its apex above, and 
rounded. There are two nasal plates; the anterior is quadrilateral, with its 
posterior margin incurvated, and the posterior pentagonal hollowed before for 
the nostril. The upper jaw is covered with eight large square plates, increasing 
in size to the angle of the mouth; two of these (the fourth and fifth) ascend to 
form the inferior wall of the orbit. There are two posterior orbital plates, the 
superior of which is the longer, and only one anterior orbital. 
The nostrils are lateral and near the snout. The eyes are large, the pupil dark, 
the iris grey. The neck is contracted, and smaller than the head. The body is 
elongated, sub-cylindrical, rounded above, and covered with smooth scales; the 
abdomen is flattened, and covered with plates. ‘The tail is delicate and pointed. 
Cotour. The head is of a greyish-black colour, with a transverse blotch of 
yellowish-white on each side of the occiput, uniting to form a ring; the lips are 
white. ‘The upper surface of the body is the same colour as the head; but this 
varies a good deal—sometimes almost black, at others approaching a chestnut- 
brown, finely dotted with grey. The abdomen is reddish-yellow, with three 
parallel rows of dark spots of sub-triangular form, with their apices turned 
forward, one row of which runs in the mesial line. The tail is of similar colour 
with the body, both above and below, but wants the sub-triangular spots. 
Divenstons. Length of head, 5 lines; length of body, 63 inches; length of tail, 
2 inches; circumference of body, 9 lines. In the individual here described there 
were 132 abdominal plates, and 49 sub-caudal scales. IT have seen one 14 inches 
long. 
Hasirs. The Coluber punctatus is a very timid animal, living great part of the 
time concealed under the bark of trees, or old logs and stones. It emerges from 
