8 Storer on the 
dorsal ridge; of a brownish color, irregularly 
blotched with darker spots. 
The first vertebral plate is triangular, the next 
three hexagonal, the last pentagonal. There are 
four lateral plates; the first of which is quadran- 
gular, the remainder are pentagonal. The marginal 
plates, twenty-three in number, are small, generally 
elongated, forming a margin; the posterior plates 
largest, and appearing as if they were a continuation 
of the last vertebral plate. 
Sternum small, composed of nine yellowish brown 
plates; it is divided into three portions by two liga- 
mentous hinges; the anterior, composed of three 
plates, is quite moveable upon the second division ; 
the third portion, of four plates, the posterior of 
which are emarginated, and have their posterior an- 
gles acute, although united to the second division of 
the sternum, consisting of the two.large abdominal 
plates, by a similar hinge with the first, is scarcely 
moveable. 
Head pointed, flattened above; snout, truncated. 
Eyes moderate in size; pupils black, irides golden. 
Nostrils, large at the extremity of the snout. Top 
of the head nearly black. A narrow yellow line 
passes from the tip of the snout backwards over each 
eye, and is lost upon the neck ; a second line of the 
same color, larger and much brighter, is continued 
backward beneath the eyes to the neck. A broad 
yellow band is also observed upon each side of the 
chin, exhibiting a striking contrast with the dark 
brown color of the jaws. Skin of the neck, throat 
and legs, ash colored. Neck, covered with granula- 
