SNAKES. 141 



h. Adult. Philippine Islands. From Mr. Cuming's Collection. 

 (Nearly uniform black.) 



c. Adult. Philippine Islands. From Mr. Cuming's Collection. 



(Nearly uniform black.) 



d. Adult. Philippine Islands. From Mr. Cuming's Collection. 



e. Half-grown. Sumatra. From the Ley den Museum. 

 /. Adult. Khasya. 



g, h. Adult. Khasya. — -/, g, h, presented by Dr. J. Hooker, 



exhibit the abdominal bands. 

 i. Adult : rather discoloured. Sine patria. 



Var. Head above reddish white, with some small brown spots 

 between the eyes ; on each side a whitish streak from the back- 

 edge of eye to the end of tail ; back reddish brown, with pairs of 

 more or less obsolete lighter spots ; belly with small triangular 

 black specks. Perhaps a species ; all the specimens of the size 

 of half-grown individuals of Ps. pulverulentus, and not of so 

 stout a habit. 



k. Borneo. 



I. Borneo. Presented by Captain Sir E. Belcher. 



m. India. From the Collection of the Zoological Society. 



n. India. From the Collection of the Zoological Society. 



0. India. From the Collection of the Zoological Society. 



Fam. VH. RACHIODONTIDiE. 

 Diagnosis and synonymy the same as of the only genus. 



1. Dasypeltis, Wagler. 



Habit moderate, rather elongate ; belly rounded ; tail not di- 

 stinct from trunk, tapering ; head short, high, rounded ; snout 

 short, truncated ; eyes small ; pupil round. One nasal, one 

 anterior, two posterior oculars ; shields of crown regular, small ; 

 anterior frontals broad in front j posterior ones rather large, bent 

 on the side, and replacing a loreal ; vertical largest ; occipitals 

 very small ; anal entire ; scales with a very strong keel, lan- 

 ceolate, in twenty-three or twenty-five rows. Maxillary teeth 

 minute and scarce (four to seven) ; gular teeth, formed by the 

 elongated inferior spinous processes of the hinder cervical ver- 

 tebrae. South and West Africa. 



Rachiodon, Jourdan, Journ. le Temps, 1833 ; Dum. Sf Bibr. vii. 

 p. 491. Deirodon, Owew, Oc?on^o^r. p. 220. Tropidonotus, sp., 

 Schleg. Ess. ii. p. 328. Dasypeltis, Wagler, Nat. Syst. der Ampli. 

 p. 178. Anodon, A. Smith, Zool. Journ. 1829, p. 443 (not Lamk.). 

 Natrix, sp., Coluber, sp., auct. prior. 



