LUTRIX SNAKE. 473 



coloured one was of Africa. Linnxus assigns 

 India as the native country of his animal. It pro- 

 bably varies in colour, a specimen in the British 

 Museum being entirely of a lead-colour above, 

 and white beneath : the scuta very narrow, and 

 forming a white vitta or band down the whole 

 under part of the animal, edged on each side by a 

 line of subtrigonal black spots with descending 

 points ; the whole agreeing most accurately with 

 the first-mentioned figure in Seba, though differ- 

 ing as to colours. To this I may add, that in Sir 

 Hans Sloane's copy of that work, now in the British 

 Museum, the above figure is coloured as in the 

 specimen just mentioned, in opposition to the 

 printed description of the author, in which there 

 may probably have been some mistake. 



VAK. ? 



Schmahlbauchigte Natter. Merrem Beytr. 1. p. 7. t. 1. 



THIS, which is described and figured by Mer- 

 rem, is perhaps no other thaji a variety of the 

 Lutrix, differing only in having the tail rather 

 more obtuse than in the Seban figures above men- 

 tioned : its colour is said by Merrem to be pale 

 chocolate-brown above, blueish on the sides, and 

 yellow on the abdomen : the abdominal scuta 1 17, 

 and the subcaudal scales 38. 



v. in. p. ii. 31 



