60 COLUBRID^E. 



Coluber Dumfrisiensis. Sowerb. 



MANY years since a small Snake, having the characters 

 of one of the Colubrida, was taken by Mr. J. W. Sim- 

 mons, near Dumfries. It was published as a new species 

 by Mr. Sowerby in his British Miscellany, and figured in 

 the third plate of that work. It was there named Coluber 

 Dumfrisiensis. The specimen remained until within the 

 last few years in the possession of Mr. Sowerby's family ; 

 but having come into my hands, it was unfortunately lost 

 or mislaid, and I have never since been able to recover it. 

 There is, I think, great reason to believe that it was a 

 very young Natrix torquata, but differing certainly in 

 many respects from the usual appearance and characters of 

 that species. It was about three or four inches in length ; 

 " of a pale brown colour, with pairs of reddish brown 

 stripes from side to side, over the back, somewhat zigzag, 

 with intervening spots on the sides." The most remark- 

 able peculiarity mentioned, however, is that " the scales are 

 extremely simple, not carinated." The abdominal plates 

 were one hundred and sixty-two; those under the tail 

 about eighty. This is all the information at present 

 possessed respecting the species, if it be indeed a species. 

 Mr. Jenyns, in his excellent Manual, expresses the opinion 

 which I have given above, that it is " probably an imma- 

 ture variety of the common species." 



See Sowerby's Brit. Miscell. p. 3, t. iii.; also London's 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. II. p. 438, where the original figure is 

 copied. 



