45. LYCorniDiuM. 341 



largest ; chin-shields very small, the anterior in contact with four 

 or five lower lahials. Scales in 17 rows. Ventrals 104-189 ; anal 

 entire; subcaudals 37-52. Brown above, with or without a dark 

 vertebral line ; a series of transverse dark brown or black spots 

 usually present along each side of the back, these spots wide apart 

 and usually alternating with those of the other side; head speckled 

 or vermiculated with dark brown ; a yellowish, dark-edged streak 

 from the eye to the angle of the mouth ; ventrals and subcaudals 

 dark brown or olive-brown in the middle, yellowish speckled with 

 brown on the sides. 



Total length 420 millini, ; tail 57. 



Guinea. 



a. Ilgr. (V. 170 ; C. 30). Fantee. T. E. Bowdich, E,-q." TRl. 



(Tvpe.) 



h. 2 (V. 189 ; C. 42). Ashantee. ^Ir. McCarthv [C.]. 



('. 2 (V. 164; C. 37). Gold Coast. (Tvpe of //. wumra.) 



</. Yg. (V. 164; 0. ?). A.-aba. 180 miles Dr. J. \V. Crosse [P.]. 



up the Niger. 



e-ff. c? (V. 183; C. 52) W. Africa. J. C. Salmon, Esq. [P.]. 

 .t 2 (V. 180, 189; C. 

 42, 43). 



8. Lycophidium semicinctum. 



Lycodon horstokii, part., Sch'e(j. Phys. Serp. ii. p. Ill (1837). 

 L^'cophidiou seiuicinctmu, Dum. l^ Bibr. vii. p. 414 (1854) ; Jan 



Icon. Gen. 36, pi. iii. tig. 4 (1870). 

 liorstockii, part., Giinth. Cat. \). 197 (1858), and Ann. •!)• May 



N. H. C3) xviii. 1866, p. 2!», pi. vii. tig. A, and (4) i. 1868 



p. 427. 

 horstockii, var. alboniacuhita, Steind. Sitzb. Ah. li'ien, Ixii. 



1870, p. 334. , 



Diameter of the eye but slightly greater than its distance from 

 the mouth, liostral twice as broad as deep, just visible from above ; 

 internasals hardly as large as the nasals ; praef rentals as long as 

 broad or a little longer ; frontal as long as broad, as long 

 as the prjefrontals, shorter than the parietals ; latter shields 

 short, not longer than the distance between the frontal and the 

 end of the snout ; loreal longer than deep ; proeocular as large as 

 or a little larger than the supraocular, broadly in contact with 

 the frontal ; two postoculars, both in contact with the parietal ; 

 temporals l-f2 ; eight ujjper labials, third, fourth, and fifth entering 

 the eye ; chin-shields very small, the anterior in contact with four 

 or five lower labials. Scales in 17 rows. Ventrals 190-210 ; anal 

 entire ; subcaudals 37-52. Jjlack or dark brown above and beneath, 

 uniform or with yellowish cross bars or a dorsal series of large sub- 

 (]iiadrangular yellowish spots. 



Total length 545 millim. ; tail G5. 



Senegambia and Guinea. 



A. With yellowish cross bands. (L. semicincium, D. & 13.) 

 n. 2 (V. 208; C. 38). ? 



