350 



TMli; HO\. r. A. METJIUEN ON A NEW SNAKE, 



II. Palatine bearing 3 or 4 small teeth ; rostral excavate 

 below; nasal entire witli incipient signs of divi- 

 sion ; 5 upper labials, second and tliird entering 

 eye ; scales in 17 rows ; ventrals 195, subcandals 31. A", /rinisriiah-usi.':. sp. n. 



Xenocalamus transvaalensis, sp. U. 



Description. — Maxillary bone short, with 4 solid teeth of mode- 

 rate size, the posteiioi- ones the largest, and followed after a- short 

 interspace by a, pair of enlarged grooved fangs situated below tlie 

 posterior corner of the orbit. Palatine bearing 3 or 4 small teeth. 

 Lower jaw with about 9 rather small teeth on each side, those in 

 the middle of the row the largest. Quadrate hu'ge, attached 

 directlj^ to the skull in its anterior half : squamosal very much 

 reduced, that pai't which is visible being only two-thirds the 

 length of the quadrate {vide text- fig. 1).* 



Text-fiyure 1. 



A B 



Posterior part of skulls seen in profile: 

 (A) JLenocalainus hicoJor. (B) JIT. transvaalensis. 



Head as broad as neck ; snout depressed, prominent but not as 

 much so as in X. hicolor ; rostral large, lather acutely rounded, 

 with rounded horizontal edge, excavate below, in contact wnth the' 

 nasal. Nostril pierced in a single scute svhicli abuts on the 

 rostral (the division of the rostral shield into a very small and a 

 la.rge scale as in X. hicolor is suggested b}^ incipient sutures ; in 

 X. hicolor the sutures are distinct). Internasals large, forming a 

 median suture, separated from the first upper labial by the 

 rostral. The large prseocular forms a suture with the rostral and 

 the internasal in front. Supraocular and postocular scales 

 minute. Frontal very large, rounded in front, more or less heart- 

 shaped, a little more than half as long as the distance from the tip 

 of the rostral to the posterior limit of the frontal (actual measure- 

 ments being 52 mm. : 9*4 mm.), Parietals elongate, forming a 

 long suture, not quite so long as the frontal. Five upper labials ; 

 the first and fifth \evy small, the fourth enormous, the second 

 and third entering the eye ; the third forms a short suture with 

 the postocular. Six lower labials, third very large, first and 



* In JiT. hicolor tbe rjuadrate differs somewhat in shape and is not as hirge as 

 in X. transvaalensis ; further, the visible part of the squamosal is seen as a curved 

 horn-shaped process extending a considerable distance across the supratemporal 

 region {vide text-fig. 1). 



