6 ZOOLOGY. 
wards, and covered above with plates, generally nine in number ; no pit between the eye and 
nostril; loral plate present ; mouth moderately cleft, not dilatable; upper jaw furnished on 
either side and quite posteriorly with a poisonous fang; scales smooth ; preanal scutella bifid ; 
subcaudal scutelle divided. 
Syn. Zlaps, Scun. Hist. Amph. Nat. and Lit. 1801, 289. 
Firz. N. Class. Rept. 1826, 33. 
B. & G. Cat. Rept. N. Amer. I, 1853, 21. 
Oss. The characteristic of the genus Hlaps, as given above, we wish it to be understood, is 
merely provisional, not having had at our command a sufficient number of the species described 
by the different authors. We reserve it for another occasion to revise its diagnosis in a manner 
satisfactory both to our mind and to the actual state of herpetology. 
ELAPS NIGROCINCTUS, Girard. 
Prater XXXYV, Figs. 1—6. 
Sprc, cHAR. Head subelliptical, broader than the body, which is long and cylindrical; tail 
conical, abruptly tapering from its base; scales smooth, disposed upon fifteen rows; color red- 
dish, annulated with jet black; tip of scales blackish; anterior portion of head black; an 
occipito-temporal yellowish ring ; tip of tail black. 
Syn. Elaps nigrocinctus, Grp. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. VII, 1854, 226. 
Descr. The head is slightly detached from the body by a somewhat contracted neck. The 
eyes are very small, situated near the upper surface of the head, their diameter being equal to 
the width of the suroculary plate. The snout is obtusely rounded. ‘The vertical plate is mod- 
erately elongated and subpentagonal, pointed posteriorly ; its anterior margin is sometimes 
perfectly straight, at others subconvex, so as to assume a subhexagonal shape. The occipitals 
are large, broad, and elongated, subrounded exteriorly, truncated anteriorly, permitting the 
posterior angle of the vertical to engage between them. The suroculary is short, a little 
longer than broad, and irregular in its outline, which is five-sided; the side limiting the 
orbit above being slightly concave, the others nearly straight. The postfrontals are well 
developed, broader than long, and irregularly six-sided, sending an angular projection towards 
the sides of the head, where it engages between the ante-orbital and postnasal plates, without, 
however, reaching the labials. The prefrontals are subquadrangular, broader than long, their 
external margin reaching the upper edge of the nostrils. The rostral is broadly developed, 
rather short, subpyramidal in form, and concave beneath. The nasals are well developed, the 
posterior one being nearly as long as the anterior is high. The nostrils are small and circular, 
intermediate between the two nasal plates. The anteorbital is irregularly triangular, rather 
elongated, and similar in shape to the postnasal, the anterior angle of which meets its own 
posterior angle a little in advance of the commissure between the second and third labials. The 
postorbitals, two in number, are nearly equal in size, and subpentagonal in shape. There are 
three temporal shields well developed, the posterior one being the largest. We observe seven 
upper labials, increasing in size from the first or anterior to the sixth inclusive; the seventh is 
a little smaller than the sixth ; the third and fourth forming part of the orbit. There are six 
lower labials, of which the fourth is the largest, and much expanded beneath; the fifth is nearly 
equal to the third; the sixth is a little smaller than the latter; the second is the smallest. 
The symphyseal plate is triangular. The mental shields constitute three pairs ; the anterior 
two being parallel to one another; the third is obliquely situated along the margin of the 
me 
