100 



SNAKES OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



The genus is confined to the Philippines. The record of Dume- 

 ril and Bibron for Java is doubtless an error.* Tlie first species 

 appears to be confined to the southern part of Luzon, Samar, 

 and Mindanao ; the second, to northern and central Luzon. 



OXYRHABDIUM MODESTUM (Dumeril and Bibron) 



Stenognath-as modestus Dumeril and Bibron, Erp. Gen. 7 (18.54) 



504; Petees, Mon. Berl. Ak. (1861) 684; Jan, Arch. Zool. Anat. 



Phys. 2 (1862) 28; Icon. Gen. (1865) 13, pi. 1, fig. 3. 

 Rhabdosoma leporinum, part., Guntheb, Cat. Col. Snakes Brit. Mus. 



(1858) 12; F. Muller, III. Nacht. Cat. Herp. Samml. Basel Mus. 



(1883) 12. 

 Stenognathus modestus, part., GUNTHER, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 



(1873) 169. 

 Rhabdosoma modestum, part., GtJNTHEE, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 



(1879) 77. 

 Geophis schadenhergi Fischer, Jahrb. wiss. Anst. Hamburg 2 (1885) 



93, pi. 3, fig. 4; BoETTGEK, Ber. Senck. Nat. Ges. (1886) 106. 

 Geophis modestus, part., BoETTGEE, Ber. Senck. Nat. Ges. (1886) 106. 

 Oxyrhabdmm modestum Boulenger, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus. 1 (1898) 



302; Griffin, Philip. Journ. Sci. § D 6 (1911) 258. 



Description^ of species. — (From No. 3, E. H. Taylor collection; 

 collected at Bunawan, Agusan, Mindanao, August 12, 1913, 

 by E. H. Taylor.) (Adult female.) Rostral small, higher than 



Fig. 9. Oxijrl<-abdiuiii. modestum (Dumcjril and Bibron) ; drawing of a Mindanao specimen: 

 a, head, dorsal ^'iew-: h. head, lateral \-iew : c. head, ventral view; X 2. 



wide, scarcely visible from above; internasals small, the suture 

 between them less than one-third of that between prefrontals; 

 latter very large, equaling or nearly equaling frontal, four or 

 five times the size of internasals, broadly entering eye ; frontal 

 nearly twice as long as wide, not twice the width of supra- 



Giinther, Pre 



Zool. Soc. London (1873) 169. 



