236 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW EARTH-SNAKE FROM TRAVAN- 



CORE {RHINOPHIS- FERGUSONIANUS). 



By G. a. Boulenger, F.R.S. 



{With a Plate.) 



{Read before the Bomhay Natural History Society^ 14fA January,^ 1896.) 



The genus Rhino phis^ of which five Cejionese species are known, was 

 for many years believed to be represented in Southern India by two 

 species, viz.., R. melanogaster. Gray, and R. sanguineus, Beddome. 

 In 1886 Colonel Beddome pointed out that the former had no right to 

 remain in that genus and correctly transferred it to the genus Silybura, 

 to which the bulk of Indian Uropelts belong. / Therefore, when in 

 1890 I revised the list of Indian Snakes, the genus Rhinophis was 

 reduced to one continental species, R. sanguineus. But shortly after 

 I had the pleasure of adding a second, described in this Journal in 

 1893, i2. traoa'ncoricits* of which a specimen from Trivandrum had been 

 sent to me by Mr. H. S. Ferguson. Thanks to the same gentle- 

 man, I am now able to describe a third species, nearest allied to the 

 Ceylonese R. trevelianus, with which I am happy to connect the 

 name of Mr. Ferguson, to whose exertions we owe several interesting 

 additions to the herpetological fauna of Travancore. 

 Rhinophis fergusonianusy n. sp. 



Snout acutely pointed ; rostral very obtusely keeled above, two- 

 fifths the length of the shielded part of the head ; frontal a 

 little longer than broad, shorter than the paritals ; eye very small, 

 not half as long as the ocular shield, in contact with the third labial. 

 Diameter of body, -40 times in the total length ; 17 scales round the 

 middle of the body, 19 behind the head ; ventrals only a little larger 

 than the adjacent scales, 184 ; subcaudals 4, caudal disk a little 

 longer than the shielded part of the head, scarcely visible from 

 below ; longitudinally striated, blackish above ; sides white, dotted 

 and spotted with black ; belly white, with black dots and two series 

 of large black spots partially confluent into a zigzag band ; caudal 

 disk black, edged all round with yellow. 



Total length, 320 millim. 



A single specimen from the Cardamom hills, collected by Mr. J. S. 

 Sealy. 



Differs from R. trevelianus in the more slender body, and the 

 longer caudal disk, which does not extend on the lower surface of 

 the tail, and is striated instead of granulate. 

 * See Vol. TIL page 318, 



