RINGED SNAKE. 57 



Coluber Dumfrisiensis. Sowerb. 



MANY years since a small Snake, having the characters of 

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

 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 Dumfrisi- 

 ensis. 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 Na- 

 trix 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 co- 

 lour, with pairs of reddish brown stripes from side to side, 

 over the back, somewhat zigzag, with intervening spots on 

 the sides." The most remarkable peculiarity mentioned, 

 however, is that " the scales are extremely simple, not ca- 

 rinated." 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 immature 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. 



