53 
TROPIDONOTUS DEKAYI.—HAolbrook. 
Plate XIV. 
Cuaracters. Head elongated; snout rounded; body olive-brown above, with a 
pale vertebral line, on each side of which is a double series of small sub-quadrate 
or rounded black spots; abdomen straw colour, with a tinge of green; and each 
plate marked with four minute black dots, arranged to form four irregular longi- 
tudinal rows, which terminate at the tail; no loral plate. Pl. 139. Sc. 46. 
Descrietion. The head is rather large, narrow, and with the snout rounded. 
The vertical plate is pentagonal, broad before and pointed behind; the occipital 
plates are very long and pentagonal, broader before and narrower behind; the 
superior orbital are quadrilateral, very long, and projecting; the frontal plates are 
broad and pentagonal, with their superior border longest and their inferior 
shortest; narrow externally where they pass down to join with the posterior nasal 
plate; the anterior frontal are rhomboidal, with their inferior and posterior angles 
prolonged; the rostral plate is large, rather pentagonal, and pointed above; the 
nasal plates are two in number, nearly quadrilateral, with an opening between 
them for the nostril; the anterior orbital is single, quadrilateral, and large; there 
are two posterior orbital plates, nearly of the same size, but much smaller, and the 
inferior walls of the orbit are completed by the third and fourth superior labial 
plates, of which there are six, all quadrilateral, the fourth and fifth being longest. 
The nostrils are lateral and very near the snout. The eyes are rather large, 
the pupil black, with the iris of dark grey. The neck is contracted, and covered 
with small carinated scales. 
