126 reptiles. 



7. Philodkyas dorsalis. 



Scales smooth; upper labials seven. Olive: back dark olive 

 or brown; belly posteriorly marbled with black. 



a. Adult. St. Domingo. From M. Salle's Collection. 



Description. — Body moderately slender; tail elongate; head 

 with flat crown, and rather obtuse muzzle ; rostral shield broad, 

 obtuse above, not reaching the surface of head ; anterior frontals 

 small, circular, spheroid ; posterior ones bent on the sides ; ver- 

 tical moderate, with rather convergent outer edges, and an acute 

 angle behind ; superciliaries large, broad behind, prominent ; 

 occipitals behind rather narrow, rounded. Anterior ocular 

 deeply grooved, raised on the surface of head, but not reaching 

 the vertical ; two posterior oculars ; loreal moderate ; two small 

 nasals ; seven upper labials, third and fourth forming the lower 

 edge of eye ; only one elongate temporal in contact with one 

 or both oculars, four shorter ones behind. Scales moderate, in 

 nineteen rows ; anal bifid. Back dark olive, nearly black ; sides 

 and belly olive, about the middle of body marbled with black. 

 Posterior maxillary tooth longest, grooved. Length of cleft of 

 mouth |" ; length of tail 14" ; total length 44". 



6. Dromicus, Bibron. 



Posterior maxillary tooth largest, smooth. Body and tail 

 generally moderate, sometimes slender, rounded ; head with flat 

 crown, moderate. One loreal (in D. ater wanting) ; anterior 

 ocular one, posterior two. Scales rather short, generally in 

 seventeen or nineteen, exceptionally in fifteen, in one species in 

 twenty-three rows. Eye moderate. West Indies ; S. America. 



Dromicus, Dum. Sf Bibr. vii. p. 646. Leptophis, sp., Dum. § 

 Bibr. vii. p. 53. Psammophis, sp., Schley. Ess. ii. p. 214, 218. 

 Ilerpetodryas, sp., Schley. Ess. ii. p. 1S4, 199. Natrix, sp., 

 Gosse, A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica (note). Coronella, sp., 

 Boie, Isis, 1827, p. 5.32; Wiegm. Nov. Act. 1835. Coluber, sp., 

 nuct. prior. 



I. Dromicus margaritiferus. 



Coluber hickanella, Shaw, Zoo/, iii. p. 511. Ilerpetodryas 

 margaritiferus, Schley. Ess. ii. p. 184, and Ahbildy. t. 44. f. 19, 20. 

 Leptophis margaritiferus, Than, ty Bibr. vii. p. 5.3 Zamenis 

 tricolor, Ha Howell, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad. 1855, p. 34. f. .3. 

 One can hardly understand how a lierpetologist could describe- 

 as a new Bpecies, a snake known for more than fifty years, twice 

 described in the most perfect way in the two principal works on 



