182 A new genus of Serpents, (^t. 



form, not carinated; whereas the small scales, which cover the 

 back part of the head of the preceding species, are of the same- 

 form as those that cover the body. 



The mouth is furnished with four strong poisonous fangs, 

 two on each upper jaw, which are very conspicuous. In this 

 respect it differs also from the Leucostoma; in which the poi-^ 

 sonous fangs were only two, and these were small. 



In this species also the apertures between the eyes and nos- 

 trils are found ; which, in fact, forms one of the generic cha- 

 racters. 



The scales on the body are elongated, oval, and more deeply 

 carinated than in the preceding, and have similar small points 

 at their base ; which are here merely round cicatrices, and have 

 not the pseudo-metaUic luster of the Leucostoma. 



The colour of the upper part of the body must be considered 

 as black, variegated with brown spots, which are not of an 

 uniform shade, but pass from dark into a lighter colour : they 

 are irregularly scattered over the body ; nevertheless, they 

 exhibit a tendency to run from one side towards the other, wi- 

 dening towards the back. The light spots are composed of 

 smoky gray, passing into blackish brown, exhibiting all the inter- 

 mediate shades between these two colours: they are rather 

 small stripes, of the breadth of from two to four scales, and dis- 

 appear near the tail altogether, which is entirely black, having 

 only four small white points, which are probably accidental. 



The upper part of the head is black, bordered with gray,- 

 which becomes white behind the eyes. A dark longitudinal 

 Spot runs from the eyes, and terminates near the tytnpan bones. 

 The upper lip is white, terminating near the tip in gray. 



The lower part of the body is also irregularly spotted with 

 black and a dirty white. The white colour predominates, from 

 the head backwards, beyond llie middle of ths body, where 

 the black graduaJIy increases as far as the tail, which, as has 

 been mentioned, is entirely black. The white is punctuated 

 with black over the whole of the lower part of the body. The 

 under '^art ^f ih'- h^^o^ \s, aljo irregularly marked with blaf'k 



