oT 
TROPIDONOTUS NIGER.—Holbrook. 
Plate LX. 
Cuaracters. Head large, sub-oval; body elongated, rather slender, above 
dusky brown, at times almost black; throat and neck milky-white; abdomen and 
tail beneath, slate colour, more or less relieved in the centre with milky-white. 
Pl. 143. Sc. 64. 
Description. The head is large, sub-oval, with the snout rounded. The 
vertical plate is hexagonal, broadest before, and with an acute angle behind; the 
superior orbital are oblong, quadrilateral, largest behind, and project over the eye. 
The frontal plates are broad, hexagonal, and descend outwardly to a large quadri- 
lateral loral plate; the anterior frontal are rhomboidal and small. The occipital 
plates are large and pentagonal; the temporal are two in number, and the anterior 
larger. The rostral is hexagonal, and hollowed out on its inferior face; there are 
two nasal plates, quadrilateral, the one concave behind and the other before, to 
accommodate the nostril. There is a single large anterior orbital and two small 
posterior orbital plates; the inferior portion of the orbit is completed by the fifth 
and sixth labial plates, of which there are eight, quadrilateral and large. 
The nostrils are near the snout, and open a little upwards and outwards. The 
eyes are large, with the pupil black, and the iris smoky-grey. The neck is 
contracted. 
The body is long and more slender than in any other of our water-snakes, and 
is covered above with hexagonal, carinated scales, notched at their posterior 
extremities. The tail is long and triangular. 
