45. LTOOPHIDIUM. 341 



largest ; chin-shields very small, the anterior in contact with four 

 or five lower labials. Scales in 17 rows. Ventrals 164-189 ; anal 

 entire ; subcaudals 37-52. Brown above, with or without a dark 

 vertebral line ; a series of transverse dark brown or black spots 

 usually present along each side of the back, these spots wide apart 

 and usually alternating with those of the other side ; head speckled 

 or vermioulated with dark brown ; a yellowish, dark-edged streak 

 from the eye to the angle of the mouth ; ventrals and subcaudals 

 dark brown or olive-brown in the middle, yellowish speckled with 

 brown on the sides. 



Total length 420 millim. ; tail 57. 



Guinea. 



a. Hgr. (V. 170; 0. -39). Fantee. T. E. Bowdich, Esq. [P.]. 



(Type.) 



b. 2 (V. 189 ; C. 42). Ashantee. Mr. McCarthy [C.]. 

 (f. 2 (V. 164; C. 37). Gold Coast. (Type of ^. m«M;-fl.) 

 d. Yg. (V. 164 ; C. ?). Asaba, 180 miles Dr. J. W. Crosse [P.]. 



up the Niger. 

 e-(7. c? (V. 183; C. 52) W.Africa. J. C. Sabnon, Esq. [P.]. 



& 5 (V. 180, 189 ; C. 

 42, 43). 



8. LycopMdium semicinctum. 



Lycodon horstokii, part., Sch'eg. Pkys. Serp. ii. p. Ill (1837). 

 Lycophidion semicinctum, Dum. S( Bibr. vii. p. 414 (1854) ; Jan 



Icon. Ghi. 36, pi. iii. fig. 4 (1870). 

 horstoekii, part., Giinth. Cat. p. 197 (1858), and Ann'. 8( Mag 



N. H. (3) xviii. 1866, p. 29, pi. vii. lig. A, and (4) i. 1868 



p. 427. 

 — . — horstoekii, var. albomaculata, Steind. Sitzb. Ah. Wien, Ixii. 



1870, p. 334. 



Diameter of the eye but slightly greater than its distance from 

 the mouth. Rostral twice as broad as deep, just visible from above ; 

 internasals hardly as large as the nasals ; praefrontals as long as 

 broad or a little longer ; frontal as long as broad, as long 

 as the praefrontals, shorter than the parietals ; latter shields 

 short, not longer than the distance between the frontal and the 

 end of the snout ; loreal longer than deep ; prseocular as large as 

 or a little larger than the supraocular, broadly in contact with 

 the frontal ; two postoculars, both in contact with the parietal ; 

 temporals 1-f 2 ; eight upper labials, third, fourth, and fifth entering 

 the eye ; chin-shields very small, the anterior in contact with four 

 or five lower labials. Scales in 17 rows. Ventrals 190-210 ; anal 

 entire; subcaudals 37-52. Black or dark brown above and beneath, 

 uniform or with yellowish cross bars or a dorsal series of large sub- 

 quadrangular yellowish spots. 



Total length 545 millim. ; tail 65. 



Senegambia and Guinea. 



A. With yellowish cross bands. {L. semicinctum, D. & B.) 

 a. ? (V. 208 ; C. 38). ? 



