1881.] AND FROGS FROM SINGAPORE. 217 



The colour of the back is uniformly brown, there being no trace of 

 the longitudinal pale bands usually found in this form ; the prse- 

 frontal is wanting ; the two postfrontals are slightly unequal and 

 divided by a curved line ; they are in contact with the supranasal : 

 this is probably an individual peculiarity. There are also but 22 

 series of scales round the body instead of 24 ; about 34 occur in a 

 longitudinal line between the axils of the fore and hind legs as in 

 the type ; and in other respects the specimen agrees with Chinese 

 examples. 



I am by no means sure that this form and its allies are really con- 

 generic with E. pavimentatus, the type of the genus ^M?wece«. (See 

 Peters, Monatsbericht Akad. Berl. 1864, p. 48 ; Stoliczka, J. A.S. B. 

 18/0, xxxix. pt. 2, p. 174, and 1872, xh. pt. 2, p. 121 ; Anderson, 

 P. A. S. B. 1871, xl. p. 181.) All these Scinks are very puzzling; 

 and the generic distinctions accepted, such as the dift'erences between 

 smooth and keeled scales, transparent or scaly eyelid, presence or 

 absence of supranasal shields, are scarcely of generic importance, and 

 are merely convenient guides to identification. 



Cylindrophis lineatus, sp. nov, (Plate XX.) 



Head depressed, broad, short, the width between the eyes being 

 equal to the length from the eye to the tip of the snout. Each 

 frontal is as broad as long. The vertical is longer than broad, sub- 

 trapezoidal, the anterior margins meeting nearly at a right angle, 

 the posterior termination slightly rounded. Supraorbitals longer 

 than broad, each nearly equal in size to the vertical. Occipitals 

 more than half as large as the vertical. Postocular very small, 

 scarcely half the size of the first labial. Scales round the middle of 

 the body in 21 rows. Ventrals, where widest, in the middle of the 

 body, nearly twice the breadth of the scales on the sides ; but the 

 rows on each side of the ventrals are rather broader than the lateral 

 and dorsal scales. Ventrals (from chin-shields to anal') 215, two 

 anals, subcaudals 9 besides the terminal scale. 



Bach longitudinally banded. A blackish-brown stripe, three scales 

 wide, runs down the middle of the back from head to tail, and is 

 bordered on each side by a narrower white band ; below this again 

 is a second, broad, blackish band of irregular width, with the lower 

 border waved. This longitudinal baud is separated by a narrow 

 wavy white stripe from the transverse dark bauds of the belly ; the 

 latter are wider than the alternating white bands ; and, as in other 

 species of the genus, the bands on the opposite sides of the abdomen 

 do not precisely coincide. Head and tail yellowish white, with a 

 few blackish spots. 



Only a single specimen is sent. This measures 25 inches, of which 

 the tail is 075 in. The Snake is probably rare. 



Cylindrophis lineatus is distinguished from the three previously 

 known species of the genus by its coloration, no other form exhi- 



' It is difficult to say precisely where the true ventrals commence, as there 

 IB a gradual passage from the small scales immediately behind the chin-shields 

 into the broader ventral shields. 



