SOME NEW ASIAN SNAKES. 617 



and 8th supralabials. Supralabials, 9, the 4th, 5th and 6th touching the 

 eye. Anterior sublinguals, much smaller than posterior. Posterior 

 sublinguals, touch the 5th and 6th infralabials. Infralabials, 6. The 5th 

 and 6th largest, and subequal. The 6th broader than the posterior sub- 

 linguals. Scales, 2 heads lengths behind head 19 ; midbody 19 ; 2 heads 

 lengths before vent 17. All strongly keeled except the last row anteriorly. 

 Ventrals, 162, not angulate. Anal, entire. Subcaudals, entire, 25 

 counted but the tail is very incomplete. Colour, blackish-brown with 

 whitish spots mottling in the flank. Many labials bordered posteriorly 

 with blackish-brown. Belly with a pair of roundish lateral blackish- 

 brown spots on each ventral. 



Tkopidonotus baixeyi, spec. nov. 

 Of this snake Lieut. F. M. Bailey has sent me two specimens. One 

 I take to be an adult and measures about 2 feet 6 inches ; the other 

 appears to be a hatchling, as the navel is very obvious. It measures 11-J- 

 inches. Both were obtained in Thibet at an altitude believed to be about 

 14,000 feet. This is a very remarkable elevation at which to find 

 snakes living. The only other instance, of which I am aware, 

 where a snake has been captured at an approximate altitude is that 

 reported by Dr. H. Gadow * who found a rattlesnake (Crotalus 

 triseriatus) in the mountains of Mexico at height of 12,500 feet. 

 Mr. Bailey was informed by the natives, one of whom he sent 

 to procure these specimens, that they live in the sides of a hot 

 spring, and are never found as far as half a mile distant. They are 

 reported not to enter the water, and can be obtained in winter 

 and summer alike. It appears to be common. Both specimens were 

 captured about the 15th May this year. I believe it is unusual for 

 the young of snakes to batch in the spring in temperate climates, as 

 this appears to have done, the autumn is the season when the eggs 

 are deposited, and young born. 



Description. — Rostral, touches 6 shields, of which the anterior nasals 

 make much the largest sutures, 4 or 5 times the length of the 

 internasals, which are much the shortest. Tnternasals, a pair ; 

 the suture between them § to f that between the prefrontal 

 fellows; f to | the internaso-prgefrontal suture. Prefrontals, a pair; 

 the suture between them \ greater than the prsefronto-frontal suture ; 

 in contact with internasal, postnasal, loreal, prseocular, supraocular, 

 * Proc. Zool. Soc, London, June 1905, p. 226. 



