ON AFRICAN SNAKES. 193 



16. A List of the Snakes of the Belgian and Portuguese 

 Congo, Northern Rhodesia, and Angola. By G. A. 

 Boulenger, F.R.S., F.Z.S.* 



[Received March 3, 1915 : Read April 13, 1915.] 

 (Text-figures 1 and 2.) 



Index. 

 Systematic : — Page 



Ophidia. List of the genera and species known from the 

 Belgian and Portuguese Congo, N. Rhodesia, and Angola, 



with keys to their identification 193 



Prosi/mna angolensis, sp. n. Angola 208 



Calamelaps mellandi, sp. n. Lake Bangwelu 214 



Some years ago I drew up a list of the Reptiles of Africa 

 south of Angola and the Zambesi f , accompanied by keys to the 

 identification of the genera and species. These keys have proved 

 very useful, and I have been urged to prepare similar means of 

 easy identification for the Reptiles, especially the Snakes, of 

 other parts of Africa. Having recently bad to name large series 

 of Reptiles from the Belgian Congo, in which work I have been 

 helped by my excellent attendant Mr. F. Kingsbury, it has 

 occurred to me to use the occasion for making a complete list 

 of the Snakes hitherto recorded from that large Colony and, 

 in order to connect this list with the one alluded to above, to 

 include also Angola, the Portuguese Congo, and Northern 

 Rhodesia. On other occasions I hope to compile similar lists of 

 the Snakes of Madagascar, of East Africa north of the Zambesi, 

 of West Africa north of the Congo, and of North Africa, so as to 

 embrace the whole Snake-fauna of this part of the world. 



In the preparation of the present list I have been assisted not 

 only by Mr. Kingsbury, but also by my young friend M. Gaston 

 de Witte, both of whom have made many suggestions for the 

 improvement of the keys and who have been of great service to 

 me in testing them on unnamed material. 



The name of each species is accompanied by a reference to the 

 original description, to the Catalogue of Snakes in the British 

 Museum (1893-1896), and to Barboza du Bocage's ' Herpetologie 

 d Angola et du Congo' (1895). Only such synonyms are added 

 as have not been already mentioned in the Catalogue, to which 

 the student is referred for the confirmation of the determination 

 reached by means of the keys to the genera and species. 



These keys are of the most artificial kind, and apply only to the 

 Snakes known to inhabit the region embraced in this list. The 

 most trivial characters are often selected, in order to ensure 

 the identification of the genus and species with the least possible 

 recourse to an examination of the dentition, which presents 



* Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum, 

 t Ann. S. Afr. Mus. v. 1910, p. 455. 



