NATPvIX 89 



bars. Opposite these black bars, on the three adjoining scale 

 rows, are small, yellowish white spots, below which on the outer 

 scale rows is another series of black bars or spots ; the ventrals 

 have an indistinct row of dots on the outer sides, distinctly 

 marked on the tail. 



Remarks. — This species is as common in the Calamianes and 

 Palawan as Nati-ix spilogaster is in Luzon. It is found in low 

 moist situations and along- small streams. It feeds on frogs 

 and fishes. It is not regarded as poisonous by the people of 

 Busuanga. It occurs from the eastern Himalayas through As- 

 sam, Burma, southern China and the Malay Peninsula, to Java, 

 Sumatra, Borneo, and Palawan. 



NATRIX AURICULATA (GLinther) 

 Plate 4, figs. 2 to 4 



Tropidonotus auriculatus Gunther, Cat. Col. Snakes (1858) 80; 

 Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. (1861) 687; Boulenger, Cat Snakes Brit. 

 Mus. 1 (1893) 261, pi. 17, Hg. 1; F. Muller, III. Nacht. Cat. Herp. 

 Samml. Basel Mus. (1883) 15; Fischer, Jahrb. wiss. Anst. Ham- 

 burg 2 (1885) 80; Boettger, Ber. Senck. Nat. Ges. (1886) 108. 



Natrix auriculata Griffin, Philip. Journ. Sci. § D 6 (1911) 257. 



Description of species. — (From No. 50, E. H. Taylor collec- 

 tion; collected at Bunawan, Agusan, Mindanao, September 

 23, 1913, by E. H. Taylor.) (Adult female.) Head very short 

 and blunt, very distinct from neck ; rostral broader than deep, 

 visible only as a narrow line from above; internasals longer 

 than broad, narrowed anteriorly ; prefrontals much broader than 

 long, shorter than internasals ; frontal about one and a half 

 times as long as broad, longer than its distance from end of 

 snout; parietals longer than frontal, in contact with 1 superior 

 postocular; 2 nasals, the poste- 

 rior highest; loreal higher than 

 wide, in contact with second and 

 third labials; preocular single, 

 very high, not in contact with 

 frontal ; supraocular twice as 

 long as wide ; 3 postoculars ; tem- 

 porals ..-1-3; 8 upper labials, 



third, fourth, and fifth enter- fig. ?. Matrix aurlculata IGUnther) ; after 

 11 • 11 .. •....1..4-U Boulenger; a, head, dorsal view; h. head. 



mg eye; seventh, sixth, eighth, ,^terai view. 

 fifth, fourth, third, second, 



first is the order of size of labials; 9 lower labials, 5 touching 

 anterior chin shields, which are shorter and broader than poste- 

 rior; scales in 17 rows, strongly keeled, except outer row, which 



