96 REPTILES. 
+ Head convex and rather compressed in front ; head-shield small. 
3. The Brown Asoma. Epicrates maurus. 
Uniform brown: lips and beneath yellow: the ninth upper la- 
bial shield (the one next to the two under the eye) twice as broad as 
the others ; anterior ocular shield high, forming part of the fore- 
head ; front lower labial shield very narrow: orbit with an incom- 
plete ring of scales. 
a. In spirits. Adult. Venezuela. From Mr. Dyson’s collection. 
7. NIPHOSOMA. 
Head large, covered with scales: nostrils lateral, between two 
plates of two internasals, and two rows of other symmetrical plates 
behind them on the ends of the muzzle: rostral nine-sided, inequi- 
lateral: eyes lateral; pupil elliptical, erect ; orbit with a complete 
circle of scales: all the lip-shields concave above, with a deep pit 
on the hinder edge of the upper lip and on most of those of the 
lower: body short, thick, compressed: scales flat, smooth: tail rather 
short: subcaudal plates one-rowed. 
Xiphosoma, Gray, Zool. Mise. 1842. Fitz. N. Syst. 54, 1826. 
Syst. Rept. 24, 1843. Xiphosoma, a, Wagler, Syst. 167. Xipho- 
soma sp., Dum. & Bib. Erp. Gen. vi. 536. Fitz. N. Class. 54, 
1826. 
1. The Bososi. Xiphosoma caninum, Fitz. Rept. 54, 1826. 
Wagler, Syst, 167. Gray, Zool. Misc. 42. Dum. §& Bib. Erp. Gen. 
vi. 540. X. Araramboya, Wagler, Spix. Braz. 45, t.16. Boa ca- 
nina, Linn. Mus. Ad. 39, t. 3. Shaw, Nat. Hist. Zool. iii. t. 96. 
Schlegel, P. S. 388, t. 14, f. 8,9. Guerin, Icon, t. 19, f.2.  B. 
Hypnale, Linn. S. N. i. 373,a. Seba, Thes. ii. t. 34, f. 1, 2. Lacep. 
Quad. Ovip. ii. t. 16, f. 2. B. exigua, Laur. Syn. 89. _B. auran- 
tiaca, Laur. Syn. 89. Seba, ii. t. 81, f.1. BB. thalassina, Laur. 
Seba, ii. t. 96, f.2. B. viridis and B. flavescens, Bodd. Nov. Act. 
Leop. vii. 17. Scheuch. P. S. t. 628, f. HE. Bojobi, Term. Holl. 
Equin. 35. Lacep. Quad. Ovip. ii. 378, t. 17, f. 1. 
Green: rostral plate nine-sided, inequilateral ; internasal plates 
two, with two rows of other symmetrical plates behind them: eyes 
surrounded by a circle of scales. ' 
a. In spirits. Adult. Brazils. Old collection. 
Boa canina, Shaw, in B. M. 
b. In spirits. Half grown. Brazils. 
