A NEW GENUS OF BOIDA OF CUBA. 67 
and the one above mentioned, the first being provided with intermaxillary teeth, the se- 
cond being without them. The first sub-family is divided into four genera, the second 
into ten, the first or that of the Holodonts, including the Pythonida, having a prehensile 
tail, the second or the Aproterodonts, the Erycide, and the Boidw, the latter comprising 
ten genera, having a prehensile tail, the former (Eryx) without. The genera are based 
upon the presence or absence of fossettes in one or both lips, the disposition of the plates 
and scales upon the head, their presence or absence, the position of the nostrils, the smooth- 
ness or carination of the scales of the body, &c. 
The animal above described belongs to the second of the sub-families indicated, or 
the Aproterodonts, being without intermaxillary teeth. None of the ten genera into 
which this family is divided presents characters identical with those of Notophis. 
Platygaster is distinguished by the carination of its scales from “Boa, Pelophilus, Eunectes, 
Xiphosoma, Epicrates, and Chilobothrus,” in all of which the scales are smooth, “besides 
in presenting a cephalic covering, composed exclusively of symmetrical plates, and not 
in part of these and in part of scales, or only the latter, as the Leptoboas, and the Enygres,” 
(See Dum. and Bib., Vol. vi. p. 496.) The tail is long and robust. Epicrates has the 
upper part of the head covered with plates in its anterior and with scales in its posterior 
half, but the nostrils open between three plates, and the scales of the body are smooth. 
Epicrates and Xiphosoma are the only genera of their tribe, according to Duméril and 
Bibron, which have fossettes to the lips. There are-two species of Epicrates, H. Cenchris, 
ten feet long, and KE. angulifer longer, the latter from Cuba. ‘The first of these species has 
a row of scales along the middle of the back, larger than the others. Leptoboa has the 
head covered with plates in front, and with scales posteriorly, but the interspace be- 
tween the eyes is occupied with scales, and the tail is long. (127 subcaudal scuta.) 
Tropidophis, a Cuban genus, has the head covered with symmetrical plates, the nostril 
opening between two plates, the scales uni-carinate, the central row not larger than the 
others; the number of the abdominal and subcaudal plates is nearly the same—147 to 200 
abdominal,—27 to 39 subcaudal. 
From the genera above mentioned Notophis differs in its small size, having more the 
general appearance of an Eryx, in the shape of the head, in the mode of carination of the 
scales, its short tail, the narrowness of the ventral scutes and the position of the nostril, 
which opens near the middle of a single plate, resembling in this respect Platygaster, but 
in that genus, the ventral plates are very broad, the tail long, the head covered entirely with 
plates, and is without fossettes to the lips. Its habitat also is very different. We have 
carefully examined the works of Duméril and Bibron, and Mr. Gray, the latest authorities 
in Herpetology, and do not find any animal the description of which corresponds to the 
