108 HELICOPS ERYTHROGRAMMUS. 
plates, the upper one large, the lower very small; the anterior orbital plate is 
quadrilateral, narrow, and elongated; the nasal plates are two in number, small 
and trapezoidal; the nostril plates are also somewhat trapezoidal; the rostral 
plate is very broad and irregularly hexagonal, broadest below, and_ slightly 
concave. ‘There are seven superior labial plates, increasing in size from before 
to the sixth; the fourth and fifth complete the inferior wall of the orbit. 
The nostrils are small, superior, and placed near the snout, open outwards, 
backwards, and upwards. The eyes are very small, superior, and are placed 
near the snout; the pupil is black, and the iris greyish-red. The body is 
somewhat depressed, elongated and fusiform, tapering at the head and tail. The 
scales are all smooth and shining, broad, obtuse, and somewhat hexagonal on the 
back, and nearly uniform in size throughout, the inferior row being a little larger, 
Cotour. The head is dark blue; the marginal plates of both the upper and 
lower lip are of a bright lemon-colour, each with a dark blue spot in the centre; 
the throat is bright lemon-colour for about an inch and a half, when it becomes of 
a pale straw-colour. A vertebral line of red begins at the occiput and runs to 
the tail; on each side of this is another longer line of the same colour, reaching to 
the extremity of the tail; each of these lines is of the breadth of a single scale, 
and between them are broad bands of bluish-black, the breadth of three scales; 
beneath the inferior longitudinal red line is another band of bluish-black, including 
two scales and a half; and next is a third red band consisting also of two scales 
and a half; the margins of the scales being straw-colour, give a lighter appearance 
to the latter band. The plates of the abdomen are flesh-colour, with their 
posterior margin pale straw-colour, and on each are two large rounded spots 
of indigo-blue, forming a line of blue spots on each side of the abdomen; a third 
spot is sometimes present in the middle of the plates. 
Dimensions. Length of the head, #5 of an inch; breadth across the temples, } 
of an inch; circumference, 33 inches; length of head and body, 38 inches; tail, 53 
