SNAKES. 79 



Description. — Rostral shield just reaching the surface of head ; 

 anterior frontals rectangular triangular, pointed in front ; pos- 

 terior frontals nearly square, but bent on the sides ; vertical and 

 occipitals moderate ; the nostril between two shields ; loreal 

 large ; one large anterior and two posterior oculars, the anterior 

 one sometimes furrowed, but not divided ; eight rather narrow 

 upper labials, the fourth and fifth forming the lower edge of 

 orbit; lower posterior ocular in contact with one large temporal 

 shield, three smaller ones behind. Scales in twenty-one rows, 

 all keeled, even some of those in the outer row ; anal bifid. — 

 Dusky olive-brown ; one yellow vertebral stripe, beginning on 

 the occiput ; another on each side of the back, beginning from the 

 back edge of eye ; along the side a broad yellow band, beginning 

 from the muzzle, occupying the outer row of scales, the next upper 

 half-row, and the contiguous edges of the ventral plates. The 

 remainder of the latter black, each provided in the centre with a 

 yellow triangle. The triangles, with the broad end behind, form 

 together a very strongly marked band, or a chain of triangles from 

 the chin-shields, which are yellow, to the tip of the tail. 



h. Species allied to T. cerasogaster. 

 22. Tropidonotus cerasogaster. 



Psammophis cerasogaster, Cantor, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1839, p. 52. 

 Tropidonotus cerasogaster, Cantor, Ann. # Mag. Nat. Hist. 1847, 

 p. 92. 



Scales in nineteen rows ; one anterior, three posterior oculars ; 

 nine upper labials, only the fourth touching the eye. Above 

 dark brown, sometimes with two lighter stripes ; belly black, or 

 purple, marbled with black ; from the muzzle along the upper 

 labials and the edge of abdomen to the tip of tail a straw-yellow 

 stripe. 



a. Adult. Khasya. Presented by Dr. J. Hooker. 



b. Adult. India. From M. Parzudaki's Collection. 



c. d. Adult. India. From Mr. Argent's Collection. 

 e. Adult. India. From Mr. Argent's Collection. 



/. Half-grown. India. From Mr. Argent's Collection. 

 g. Adult : head injured. India. Presented by the Zoological 

 Society. 

 The only species of the genus, exhibiting all the teeth of equal 

 length ; moreover it differs in having prominent superciliaries 

 and a »roove before the eye, a flat, not rounded, rostral shield, and 

 a narrow, elongated muzzle. But in all other characters it agrees 

 with Tropidonotus, even in having two yellow spots on the 

 occipitals. 



