30 TROPIDONOTUS SIPEDON. 
pentagonal, elongated, most extensive vertically, passing in between the frontal 
and superior orbital, though it does not completely separate them; there are three 
sub-round posterior orbital, behind which are two oblong, large temporal; the 
inferior wall of the orbit is completed by the fourth and fifth labial, of which 
plates there are eight on each side, all more or less regularly quadrilateral. 
The nostrils are lateral and near the snout. The eyes are rather large, the 
pupil black, with the iris grey. The neck is contracted, and covered with small, 
sub-hexagonal, strongly carinated scales. 
The body is long but robust, and covered with scales similar to those of the 
neck, but much larger, and slightly notched posteriorly, and with broad plates 
below. The tail is large and triangular in form, broader below and narrower 
above. 
Cotour. The head is dusky above; the jaws are olive, tinged with yellow, 
and varied with dusky at the junction of the labial plates; the lower jaw is of 
lighter colour. The body above is dark brown, and on each flank is a series of 
large sub-quadrate, reddish-brown spots, extending to the abdominal plates; from 
the superior margin of these blotches runs a light coloured transverse band to 
connect them with the spots of the opposite side; these bands are margined with 
black both before and behind; in the young snake the bands are very beautiful, 
but in the adult they become more or less indistinct, but can always be seen in 
the middle when the serpent has lately cast its skin, The throat is dirty white; 
the ground colour of the belly is dirty white, often with a reddish-brown tinge, the 
different plates being marked with small waving lines, clouded with dusky, and 
most so near the tail, where the markings both above and below are finally lost. 
Dimensions. Length of head, 14 inches; length of body, 28 inches; length of 
tail, 8 inches: total length, 37; inches. They are not unfrequently seen of 
greater dimensions. In the specimen here described there were 145 abdominal 
plates, and 67 sub-caudal bifid plates. 
