OLIGODON MEL ANOCEPH ALUS. 277 
OLIGODON. 
Oligodon, Boie, Isis, 1827, p. 519. 
Body cylindrical, moderately elongate ; tail short or somewhat long ; head ovate, not 
distinct from the neck ; rostral large ; nostril between two plates, either in a single 
or in a partially divided nasal ; eye small, pupil round. Dorsal scales rhomboidal, 
smooth, in 15 to 17 rows. Maxillary teeth 6 or 8, enlarged from before backwards, 
the terminal long and strong ; no pterygoid teeth ; palatines either edentulous or with 
two or three teeth ; mandibular teeth slightly longer anteriorly than posteriorly. 
Oligodon melanocephalus, Jan. (Plate XXXIV. fig. 2.) 
Oliffodon melanocephalus, Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. ii. 1894, p. 246. 
Head small ; snout somewhat pointed ; rostral projected backwards between the 
internasals, portion visible from above equalling the distance between the rostral 
and the frontal or somewhat " longer ; internasals smaller than the prefrontals, the 
suture between them as long as that between the latter ; frontal shield-shaped, slightly 
longer than its anterior breadth, equalling in length the interval between its anterior 
border and the tip of the snout ; supraocular considerably narrower than the frontal 
parietals a little longer than the frontal, rounded posteriorly; nasal single, oblong 
loreal square, present or absent ; one praeocular, broadly excluded from the frontal 
one postocular ; temporals 1 + 1 or 1+2; six or seven upper labials, the third and 
fourth entering the orbit ; anterior pair of chin-shields in contact with three or four 
labials; posterior pair almost scale-like. 15 rows of scales. Ventrals 181-229; 
anal 1/1 ; subcaudals 53-68. 
Upper surface reddish olive, lower surface yellowish white ; upper surface of head, 
rostral shield, nape and sides of the neck bluish black. 
Dr. Giinther gives the total length of the specimen which served him as the type of 
Bhynchoealamus melanocephalus, here figured, as being nearly 460 millim., of which 
the tail formed 75 millim. 
Only a single example of this species has ever been recorded from Africa. It was 
found at Cairo, and is preserved in the Museum at Basel. It is also present in the 
Sinaitic Peninsula, Palestine, and Syria. 
