814 



EEPTILIA. 



about one-third the size of the post-frontals, rounded in front and broader than 

 long. Vertical large, equalling the distance between its anterior margin and the 

 tip of the snout, with posteriorly convergent lateral margins as long as the breadth 

 of the anterior border of the shield ; posterior margins forming nearly a right angle. 

 Superciliaries posteriorly expanded and as long as the vertical. Posterior margins 

 of occipital divergent, the shield in contact with superior postocular. Nasal plates 

 large. Loreal twice as long as high with its posterior extremity pointed. Two pre- 

 oculars, the lower very small and in the line of the labials ; the upper large and 

 broad, reaching to the upper surface of the head, but not in contact with the vertical. 

 Two or three postoculars in contact with two temporals. Two elongated anterior 

 temporals side by side, those behind them irregular. Eight or nine upper labials, 

 the fourth and fifth, or the fifth and sixth, entering the orbit. 



Total length 

 Length of head 

 gape 

 „ tail 



Inches. 



Inches. 



59-17 



52-84 



1-10 



1-10 



1-17 



1-17 



11-00 



9-25 



Inches. 



43-00 

 0-95 

 0-88 

 8-00 



Ventrals 252—258 ; Sub-caudals 90—101 ; Scales on the body 93. 



Ground colour bright olive-yellow, darker on the upper surface of the head. 

 A narrow black band from behind the eye to the neck. A series of large elongated 

 irregular black spots on each side of the vertebral line, on the anterior half of the 

 trunk connected by a narrow intervening black area, many of these spots assuming 

 the form of black rings with yellow centres. On the hinder half of the body, the 

 connecting black lines disappear, and a broad yellow band runs along the vertebral 

 line to the tip of the tail. About the position of the twenty-fifth ventral, a lateral 

 series of elongately oval black rings with yellow centres begins, each ring occupy- 

 ing about six rows of scales and separated from its fellows by about four rows of 

 scales. There are from 12 to 14 of these rings, but they are displaced in the middle 

 of the body by large oblong dark-brown spots occupying the sides of the body, 

 each spot being separated from its fellow by a narrow transverse yellow line contin- 

 uous above with the yellow dorsal area. On the sides of the tail, these large 

 brown spots become confluent, and constitute a well-defined brown lateral line. A 

 bright yellow line along the angles of the ventrals, in the last sixth of the trunk, 

 and prolonged to the angles of the sub-caudals. The lateral margins of alternate 

 groups of the ventrals, on the anterior part of the trunk, below the rings, are mar- 

 gined with black, and there is a narrow interrupted band along the line of the feeble 

 keel. The ventrals and sub-caudals are yellow, but the former are obscurely spotted 

 with black. 



