172 Mr. H. J. Carter on 



The colour of the upper parts is brown, each side of the 

 body being ornamented with a series of large dark-coloured 

 triangles, the point of each triangle meeting that of the other 

 side in the median line of the back. Lower parts whitish, 

 with a series of large rounded black spots on each side and 

 smaller ones of irregular shape in the middle. The upper 

 part of the head is uniform black ; a sharp line, which runs 

 from tlie eye along the middle of the temporal scutes to the 

 angle of the mouth, dividing the black coloration of the upper 

 parts from the white of the lower. 



This species is very remarkable not only on account of the 

 rostral lobe, but also for tlie modification of the scutellation 

 of its compressed tail. Although this modification cannot in 

 any way be taken as an initial step in the development of the 

 rattle of Crotalus, the rattle being a modification of the last 

 dermal scute only into which the vertebral column is not 

 prolonged, yet the tail of this species may exercise in a much 

 smaller degree the same function as in the rattlesnake, and 

 may be an instrument by which vibrations and sound are 

 produced. It is well known also that many innocuous snakes 

 are able to vibrate the extremity of their tail. To judge 

 from its size and from the development of its poisonous appa- 

 ratus this snake must be extremely dangerous. 



Three specimens are in the collection, of which the largest 

 is 46 inches long, the tail measuring 6^ inches. 



XX J< — On iico new Genera allied ^oLoftusia,yrow the Kara- 

 koram Pass and the Cambridge Greensand respectively. 

 By H. J. Cartee, F.K.S. &c. 



[Plate Xni.] 



In the month of December, 1887, Mr. W. Theobald, M.R.A.S., 

 late Deputy Superintendent, Geological Survey of India, 

 submitted for my examination six of the fossils commonly 

 called " Karakoram stones," wliich were brought from the 

 " Karakoram Pass," in the Karakoram range of mountains, 

 North-east Kashmir, where they were collected by the late 

 Dr. F. Stoliczka. Five of these are undoubtedly Parkeriee j 

 but the other, of which, unfortunately, there is only half, is 

 totally difierent, and so very like Lofiusia in composition, 

 although not in form and structure, that (as will be seen here- 

 after) 1 have allied it to the latter and proposed for it the 



