20 Dr. A. Gunther on new Species of Snakes 



upperside of the head black ; neck with two black collars on 

 a yellowish ground. Lower parts uniform yellowish. 



A single specimen is 9^ inches long, of which the tail is 

 If inch ; it was obtained by Mr. Bartlett on the Peruvian 

 Amazons. 



Tachymenis piceivittis. 



Coniofh.'ines piceivittis, Cope, Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. 1869 (July), p. 149. 

 Tachymenis tmiiata, Peters, Berl. Monatsber. 1869 (Decemb.), p. 876. 



One specimen from Tehuantepec, purchased of M. Boucard. 



Simotes formosanus. 



Scales in nineteen rows. Ventrals 164 ; anal entire ; sub- 

 caudals 54. Two prseoculars, the superior of which is the 

 larger ; two postoculars. Seven upper labials, the third and 

 fourth entering the orbit. Posterior chin-shields only half 

 the size of the anterior. Light brownish ; many scales with 

 a black edge, these black edges forming a great number of 

 reticulated transverse lines extending across the back and 

 sides. Lower parts uniform yellow ; a rather indistinct whitish 

 line along each edge of the abdomen. 



Mr. Swinhoe has obtained one example at Takou, Formosa. 

 It is 22 inches long ; tail 4^ inches. 



Spilotes fasciatus. 

 Peters, Monatsber. Berl. Akad. 1869, p. 443. 



Scales in twenty-three or twenty-four series, those on the 

 back keeled. Ventrals and subcaudals 193 + 125, or 200-1- 

 125, or 207 -f 120; anal entire. Eye large. Vertical bell- 

 shaped, with converging outer margins ; occipitals not much 

 longer than vertical. The single prceocular is either in contact 

 icitJi the vertical or very nearly 7-eaches it. Two postoculars. 

 Eight upper labials, of which the fourth, fifth, and sixth enter 

 the orbit ; the eighth is v'ery long, as long as the three pre- 

 ceding together. Loreal scarcely longer than deep. Tem- 

 porals 2 + 2 + 2, or §. Scales elongate and much imbricate. 

 Upper parts uniform brown in the adult ; lower parts yel- 

 lowish ; towards the middle of the trunk the ventral shields 

 become more and more mottled with brown ; and further be- 

 hind the lower parts are of the same dark colour as the upper. 

 A young specimen is more greyish, finely mottled and clouded 

 with brown. 



Of this beautiful species we have three examples, one with- 

 out locality ; the second (young) is from Surinam, and the 

 third (adult) from the Peruvian Amazons. The first is 57 

 inches long, the tail being 17 inches; it has the dorsal scales 



