SNAKES. 81 
D. Head covered with small scales : tail with one row of shields below : 
abdominal shields broad, rounded, smooth : nostrils anterior, in 
a shield : scales granular, with longitudinal series of larger scales. 
Xenodermina. 
38. XENODERMUS. 
Head ovate, depressed, covered with small rather acute scales, 
with two pairs of small frontal plates just over the rostral in front ; 
rostral small, triangular, concave in the centre: nostrils large, rather 
anterior, in the middle of a large plate, with a slight slit to the 
hinder edge: labial scales rather larger than the dorsal, the lower 
ones with a concavity in the middle of each scale: upper rostral 
plate broad, triangular, erect, concave, surrounded by small scales : 
eyes convex, rather large; pupil round: throat with small acute 
scales: body elongate, compressed, subpentangular; back covered 
with very small semicircular scales, with a row of larger, ovate, 
keeled scales on each side, and two or three rows of similar larger 
keeled scales over the vertebral line; the sides covered with mode- 
rate, ovate, keeled scales, rather larger beneath: the ventral shields 
transverse, rounded: tail elongate, rather compressed, subpentan- 
gular, tapering like the back above; subcaudal shield one-rowed, 
rounded. 
This genus appears intermediate between the Hydride and the 
Boide. It has the general external appearance of the former, com- 
bined with many of the characters of the latter family, but I cannot 
find any appearance of spurs. 
Xenodermus, Retnh. Oversigten Videns. Sels. Forsk. 1836. 
Wiegm. Arch. 111, 1837, 136. K. Dansk. V. Sels. x. 1843, 253. 
Gonionotus, Gray, in Stokes’s Australia, Appendix, 5, 1846 (not 
White). 
1. The Gonionotr. Xenodermus Javanicus, Reinh. K. Dansk. 
V. Sels. x. 1843, 253, t. 2, f. 1—8. Gonionotus plumbeus, Gray, 
in Stokes’s Australia, App. 5, t. 4. 
Bluish gray; belly and beneath white. Length of body 9 
inches, tail 4 inches = 13 inches. 
a. In spirits. Java. Purchased in Rotterdam. 
