328 Ur. A. Giinther on the 



a black and white edge, occupying the third and fourth and 

 the two halves of the adjoining series of scales ; it com- 

 mences in the nasal region, passes through the eye, and is 

 continued nearly to the end of the tail. The outermost series 

 of scales and the abdomen are yellowish white. 



A single specimen from Pungo Andongo is 36 inches long, 

 the tail measuring 6^ inches. 



Stmocephalus nyassce, sp. n. 



Scales in 15 rows, all strongly keeled, and the majority 

 with shorter secondary keels ; dorsal scales large, bicarinate. 

 Ventral scutes strongly keeled on the sides, 178. One ante- 

 and one postocular ; seven upper labials, the third and fourth 

 entering the orbit; temporals 1 + 2 + 3, the anterior separated 

 from the anteocular by the occipital and fifth labial, which 

 are in contact with each other. Snout very broad and much 

 depressed. Uniform brownish black above, lighter beneath. 



A single specimen, 17 inches long, from Lake Nyassa. 

 The tail measures 4 inches. 



Boodon geomefricus, Boie. 



This name, which frequently occurs in treatises on African 

 snakes, has been applied to specimens of Boodon with 21, 

 generally 23, and sometimes 25 series of scales, and with two 

 yellow lines on each side of the head, of which one may or 

 may not be continued along the side of the body. 



From a revision of the specimens in the British Museum 

 and a comparison of the descriptions by various authors I 

 have come to the conclusion that several well-marked species 

 have been confounded under that name, at any rate by 

 myself in the ' Catalogue of Colubrine Snakes ; ' that neither 

 the specimen in the Paris Museum from Peron's collection, 

 which was described by Dumeril and Bibron, nor the one 

 figured by Jan, nor the snake figured by Andrew Smith, are 

 the species named and figured by Boie and Schlegel *. 

 Jan's figure was probably taken from a specimen from the 

 Seychelle Islands, and Smith's snake is, as Boulenger has 

 already stated, in fact, Boodon Uneatus. 



The type of the species is in the Leyden Museum and 

 described by Schlegel. His description does not agree with 

 any of the species distinguished here ; possibly it may apply 



* Peters and Bocao^e seem to have assumed that the type named by 

 Boie is iu, or at least identical with the specimens of, the Paris Museum 

 (Jorn. Sc. Lisb. xliv. 1887, p. 199). 



