210 ZOOLOGY. 



wards, and covered above with plates, generally nine in number ; no pit between the eye and 

 nostril ; loral plate present ; month moderately cleft, not dilatable ; upper jaw furnished on 

 either side and quite posteriorly with a poisonous fang ; scales smooth ; preanal scutella bifid ; 

 subcaudal scutelliB divided. 



Syn. Elaps, ScHN. Hist. Amph. Nat. and Lit. 1801, 289. 

 Fm. N. Class. Kept. 1826, 3.3. 

 B. & G. Cat. Kept. N. Amer. I, 1853, 21. 



Obs. The characteristic of the genus Elcqis, as given above, we wish it to be understood, is 

 merely provisional, not having had at our command a sufficient number of the species described 

 by the different authors. We reserve it for another occasion to revise its diagnosis in a manner 

 satisfactory both to our mind and to the actual state of herpetology. 



ELAPS NIGUOCINCTUS, Girard. 

 Plate XXXV, Figs. 1—6. 



Spec. char. Head subelliptical, broader than the body, which is long and cylindrical ; tail 

 conical, abruptly tapering from its base ; scales smooth, disposed upon fifteen rows ; color red- 

 dish, annulated with jet black ; tip of scales blackish ; anterior portion of head black ; an 

 occipito-temporal yellowish ring ; tip of tail black. 



Syn. Elofs nigrocinctus, Grd. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. VII, 1854, 226. 



Descr. The head is slightly detached from the body by a somewhat contracted neck. The 

 eyes are very small, situated near the upper surface of the head, their diameter being equal to 

 the width of the suroculary plate. The snout is obtusely rounded. The vertical plate is mod- 

 erately elongated and subpentagonal_, pointed posteriorly ; its anterior margin is sometimes 

 perfectly straight, at others subconvex, so as to assume a subhexagonal shape. The occipitals 

 are large, broad, and elongated, subrounded exteriorly, truncated anteriorly, permitting the 

 posterior angle of the vertical to engage between them. The suroculary is short, a little 

 longer than broad, and irregular in its outline, which is five-sided; the side limiting the 

 orbit above being slightly concave, the others nearly straight. The postfrontals are well 

 developed, broader than long, and irregularly six-sided, sending an angular jirojection towards 

 the sides of the head, where it engages between the ante-orbital and postnasal plates, without, 

 however, reaching the labials. The jirefrontals are subquadrangular, broader than long, their 

 external margin reaching the upper edge of the nostrils. The rostral is broadly developed, 

 rather short, subpyramidal in form, and concave beneath. The nasals are well developed, the 

 posterior one being nearly as long as the anterior is high. The nostrils are small and circular, 

 intermediate between the two nasal plates. The anteorbital is irregularly triangular, rather 

 elongated, and similar in shape to the postnasal, the anterior angle of which meets its own 

 posterior angle a little in advance of the commissure between the second and third labials. The 

 postorbitals, two in number, are nearly equal in size, and subpentagonal in shajie. There are 

 three temporal shields well developed, the posterior one being the largest. We observe seven 

 upper labials, increasing in size from the first or anterior to the sixth inclusive ; the seventh is 

 a little smaller than the sixth ; the third and fourth forming part of the orbit. There are six 

 lower labials, of which the fourth is the largest, and much expanded beneath ; the fifth is nearly 

 equal to the third ; the sixth is a little smaller than the latter ; the second is the smallest. 

 The symphyseal plate is triangular. The mental shields constitute three pairs ; the anterior 

 two being parallel to one another ; the third is obliquely situated along the margin of the 



