228 REPTILES. 



flat crown and obtuse, rounded muzzle of moderate length ; eye 

 rather small. Rostral shield much longer than broad, five- sided, 

 much produced backwards, so as nearly to cover the entire front 

 of muzzle, extending between the anterior frontals, with a right 

 angle behind. Anterior frontals rather small, with four sides, the 

 hinder of which is convex ; posterior frontals moderate, bent on 

 the sides ; vertical moderate, five-sided, with convergent outer 

 edges and a right angle behind ; occipitals rounded behind, 

 forked ; superciliaries moderate, prominent above the eye ; two 

 posterior oculars ; one anterior (in one specimen two), deeply 

 grooved before the eye, raised above the surface of crown, but not 

 reaching the vertical; two nasals (nostril between), anterior one 

 largest, bent on the front of snout ; six upper labials, third and 

 fourth forming the lower edge of orbit, sixth largest ; one larger, 

 rhomboid, temporal shield in contact with lower post-orbital, 

 some others behind scale- like. Six lower labials, and a very 

 small scale-like shield behind; first pair of lower labials very 

 long, forming a long suture behind the medial one ; the second 

 small, narrow, only one-fourth of the third ; the fourth pair very 

 large, in one specimen six-sided, in contact with the fifth and 

 with two chin-scales behind. Scales rather elongate, rhomboid, 

 smooth, in seventeen rows, on the neck in nineteen or twenty- 

 one rows ; anal Taifid ; all subcaudals two-rowed. Upper jaw 

 with one fang in front, separated from the following by an 

 interval ; an elongate series of five to six teeth behind, which are 

 not grooved ; palatine teeth equal ; anterior teeth of lower jaw 

 longest. Brownish olive or blackish olive ; back of trunk and 

 tail with ten to twelve very broad brown or black cross bands, 

 the first on the neck being darkest ; adult specimens exhibit the 

 bands more or less obsolete, so as to become nearly uniform, 

 the neck always being blackish brown, or ornamented with an 

 angular brown spot ; belly uniform yellowish, in young individuals 

 black-spotted. Length of cleft of mouth 1" ; length of tail 1' ; 

 total length 6' 4". 



11. Brachysoma, Fitzinger. 



Body cylindric, rather elongate, as in Calamaria-, tail rather 

 distinct from trunk, short, tapering, ending in an obtuse, conical 

 scale ; head not distinct from neck, moderate, rather depressed, 

 rounded ; rostral shield very large, protruding, rounded, extending 

 between the anterior frontals ; frontals nearly equal in size ; ver- 

 tical very broad, reaching the anterior ocular ; no loreal, replaced 

 by the conjunction of nasal, posterior frontal and ocular ; one 

 nasal, pierced by the small rostral ; one anterior, two posterior 

 oculars. Scales smooth, not much imbricate, in not much obhque 



