273 



verse bands, sometimes indistinct, with or without small black 

 spots; sides black-spotted; lips with black spots or bars. Lower 

 surface yellowish-white, sometimes spotted with brown or black ; 

 end of tail yellow or black. Length of head and body 700 mm.; 

 tail 150 mm. 



Habitat: Borneo 1 ); Obi; Ceram!; Haruku; Timor Laut; 

 Kei Islands; Aru Islands; New Guinea (Jobi, Mafoor, Yule 

 Island, Dorei, Rubi, Andai, Mt. Arfak, Mansinam, Manokwari, 

 Pokembo, lake Sentani, Koime river!, Tami river!, Humboldt 

 Bay, Tana, Etna Bay, Mimika river, Lorentz river!, Paup, 

 Bogadjim, Stephansort and Bongu on Astrolabe Bay, Berlin- 

 hafen, Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen, St. Josephs river, Inawi, S. of 

 Huon Gulf); Schouten Islands (Mysore). N. W. Australia; 

 Queensland; New South Wales. 



Feeds on small birds and frogs. 



6. Fam. AMBLYCEPHALIDAE. 



Body usually compressed, covered with imbricate scales; 

 ventrals transversely enlarged. Bones of the head slightly 

 movable; ectopterygoid present; pterygoid short, not extending 

 to the quadrate or the mandible; supratemporal rudimentary; 

 praefrontal not in contact with the nasal. Maxillary horizontal, 

 parallel with or converging towards the palatine; mandible 

 without coronoid; solid teeth in both jaws; no mental groove 



(fig- rI 3)- 



Nocturnal; feeding on worms and slugs. 



Key to the Indo-Australian genera. 



A. Subcaudals single; scales in 13 rows I. Haplopeltura p. 273. 



B. Subcaudals in two rows; scales in 15 rows 2. Amblycephalus p. 275. 



i. Haplopeltura Dum. & Bibr. 



(DUMERIL & BIBRON, Mem. Ac. Sc. XXIII p. 463, 1853). 



Head distinct from neck; eye large, with vertical pupil; 

 nasal single; maxillary short, deep, with 5 equal teeth; maxil- 

 lary and mandibular teeth decreasing in size posteriorly. Body 

 strongly compressed, covered with smooth scales, oblique, in 



i) See WERNER, Verb. Ges. Wien XLIII 1894, p. 358. 

 INDO-AUSTRALIAN REPTILES II. 18 



