COLUBER CANUS.— Auct. 

 Reptilia.— Plates XIV. XV. XVI. and XVII. 



Adult. — Plate XIV. 



C. supra livide nigro-brunneus, subtus pallide nigro-purpureus; apicibus squamaruni versus scutas abdomi- 

 nales nigro-brunneis ; scutarum abdominalium marginibus posterioribus pallidioribus ; oculis brunneis. 

 Longitudo adulti, 5 ped. 10 unc. ad 7 ped. 



Ammobates africanus ex Guinea, Sela, Tbes. torn. ii. p. 82, fig. 2. 



Coluber Ammobates ex Guinea, Shaw, General Zoology, vol. ili. part ii. p. 481. 



Coluber Canus, Merr. Beitr. vol. iii. p. 1 5, pi. i. 



Schlegel, Essai sur la Physionomie des Serpens, p. 155, pi. 6, fig. 7 & 8. 



Colour. — Above deep livid blackish brown ; below pale livid blackish purple, 

 with two or more of the rows of scales on each side of abdominal plates 

 of the latter tint, except their tips, which are of the colour of the back ; 

 the hinder edge of each abdominal plate, and of each subcaudal scale is lighter 

 than the parts in front of it, semi-pellucid, and has a pearly lustre. Eyes dark 

 liver-brown. These are the markings and colours most frequently observed 

 in adult specimens, but many individuals occur in which the colour of the 

 upper parts is of a lighter shade than the one described, and others in which 

 it is much darker, being actually a livid black, with a shining gloss. The 

 gloss is observed to prevail in a greater or less degree in every specimen. 



Variety A. — Plate XV. 



Colour.— The head, back, and sides greenish brown, variegated with 

 blackish brown spots, disposed in three or four longitudinal rows, one along 

 each side, the other two, whether connected or separate nearly in the course 

 of the centre of the back. When they are united so as to appear one 

 irregular row, the points of junction are the inner (mesial) and anterior angle 

 of a spot of one side, and the inner (mesial) and posterior angle of one of the 

 other side, hence exhibiting a tessellated appearance or a likeness, in arrange- 

 ment, to two rows of dark squares on a chess-board : the spots are either of 

 a uniform colour throughout, or they are varied with small marks or serrated 

 lines of a white or yellowish white colour. The lower parts of the sides and 

 the under parts intermediate between a straw and wine-yellow ; the abdo- 

 minal plates, particularly those at a distance from the head, blotched, or 



