512 On new African Snakes. 



LXIX. — Descriptions of Four new African Snakes in the 

 British Museum. By G. A. BOULENGER, F.R.S. 



(Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



Helicops gendrii. 



Eye rather small ; rostral much broader than deep, hardly 

 visible from above, where it forms a suture with the bell- 

 shaped internasal; frontal once and a half as long as broad, 

 as long as its distance from the end of the snout, a little 

 shorter than the parietals ; loreal scarcely longer than deep ; 

 one or two praeoculars, two postoculars, and two or three 

 suboculars, separating the eye from the labials ; nine or ten 

 upper labials ; temporals 1 + 2 or 3 ; two pairs of chin-shields, 

 the anterior in contact with five or six lower labials. Scales 

 in 25 rows, dorsals strongly, laterals faintly keeled. Ventrals 

 151-153; anal divided; subcaudals 60-64. Black above, 

 pinkish yellow beneath, the two colours sharply defined on 

 the outer row of scales; a series of dark spots along the 

 middle of the lower surface of the tail. 



Total length 630 mm.; tail 150. 



Two female specimens from Labe, French Guinea, pre- 

 sented by Dr. E. Gendre. 



Simocej)halus unicolor. 



Agreeing very closely with S.capensis, Smith, but differing 

 in the following points : — Two superposed loreals ; two prae- 

 oculars, lower very small ; three postoculars. Uniform dark 

 brown above and beneath. 



Total length 1240 mm. 



A single female specimen (V. 228 ; C. ?) from Fort Hall, 

 Kenya District, British East Africa, 4000 ft., presented by 

 Mr. S. L. Hinde. 



Aparallactus christyi. 



Diameter of eye greater than its distance from the oral 

 margin. Rostral broader than deep, the portion visible from 

 above measuring two-thirds its distance from the frontal ; 

 internasals shorter than the prefrontals ; frontal once and a 

 half as long as broad, longer than its distance from the end 

 of the snout, much shorter than the parietals ; nasal divided, 

 in contact with the prseocular ; one postocular ; a single 

 temporal; seven upper labials, third and fourth entering the 



