92 SNAKES OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



chin-shields, which are shorter than the posterior. Scales in 19 

 rows, all strongly keeled. Ventrals 148-166; anal divided; sub- 

 caudals 96-101. 



Color. — "Olive above, vertebral line lighter and crossed by 

 narrow black bars ; upper lip yellowish, the shields black-edged 

 above ; belly whitish, with a black dot at the outer end of each 

 shield; posterior ventrals brown on the sides; subcaudals en- 

 tirely brown." 



Measurements of Matrix crehripunctata (Wiegmann) . 



mm. 



Total length 680 



Tail 230 



Remarks. — I have been unable to find this species, and there 

 are no specimens in the collections which I have studied. There 

 is a single specimen in the British Museum collection from the 

 Philippines collected by Cuming. Boettger has placed this spe- 

 cies as a synonj'm of Natrix spilogastev (Boie)." 



NATRIX LINEATA (Peters) / 



Plate 4, figs. 6 and 7; Plate 5 



TropidonotiLs lineatns Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. (1861) 686: Boulenger, 

 Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus. 1 (1893) 262; Boettger, Ber. Senck. Nat. 

 Ges. (1886) 109. 



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



Description of species. — (From No. R 34, E. H. Taylor col- 

 lection ; collected at Bunawan, Agusan, Mindanao, March 15, 

 1913, by E. H. Taylor.) (Adult male.) Rostral much wider 

 than high, not visible from above ; internasals a little longer 

 than wide, bent downward in front to meet rostral, their sutures 

 with surrounding scales subequal ; prefrontal a little broader 

 than long, nearly three times the size of internasals, forming 

 its shortest suture with supraocular, its longest suture with 

 it's fellow; frontal one-fifth longer than Avide, longer than its 

 distance from end of snout, nearly equal in length to width 

 of parietal; parietals large, in contact with 2 postoculars, 

 longer than frontal, but shorter than their distance from end 

 of snout; nasal divided, posterior portion highest; loreal 

 squarish, little more than half as high as posterior nasal ; 2 pre- 



* I strong-ly suspect that N. crchripa)>ctata Wiegmann is indeed N. 

 spilogaster. I believe further that Boulenger's species of this name is a 

 distinct species. 



