108 HELICOPS ERYTHROGRAMMUS. 



plates, the upper one large, the lower very small; the anterior orbital plate is 

 quadrilateral, narrow, and elongated; the nasal plates are two in number, small 

 and trapezoidal; the nostril plates are also somewhat trapezoidal; the rostral 

 plate is very broad and irregularly hexagonal, broadest below, and slightly 

 concave. There are seven superior labial plates, increasing in size from before 

 to the sixth; the fourth and fiftii complete the inferior wall of the orbit. 



The nostrils are small, superior, and placed near the snout, open outwards, 

 backwards, and upwards. The eyes are very small, superior, and are placed 

 near the snout; the pupil is black, and the iris greyish-red. The body is 

 somewhat depressed, elongated and fusiform, tapering at the head and tail. The 

 scales are all smooth and shining, broad, obtuse, and somewhat hexagonal on the 

 back, and nearly uniform in size throughout, the inferior row being a little larger. 



Colour. The head is dark blue; the marginal plates of both the upper and 

 lower lip are of a bright lemon-colour, each with a dark blue spot in the centre; 

 the throat is bright lemon-colour for about an inch and a half, when it becomes of 

 a pale straw-colour. A vertebral line of red begins at the occiput and runs to 

 the tail; on each side of this is another longer line of the same colour, reaching to 

 the extremity of the tail; each of these lines is of the breadth of a single scale, 

 and between them are broad bands of bluish-black, the breadth of three scales; 

 beneath the inferior longitudinal red line is another band of bluish-black, including 

 two scales and a half; and next is a third red band consisting also of two scales 

 and a half; the margins of the scales being straw-colour, give a lighter appearance 

 to the latter band. The plates of the abdomen are flesh-colour, with their 

 posterior margin pale straw-colour, and on each are two large rounded spots 

 of indigo-blue, forming a line of blue spots on each side of the abdomen; a third 

 spot is sometimes present in the middle of the plates. 



Dimensions. Length of the head, tV of an inch; breadth across the temples, f- 

 of an inch; circumference, 31 inches; length of head and body, 38 inches; tail, 5^ 



