r 



OXYRHABDIUM 



103 



Remarks. — This species has been found only in the Philippine 

 Islands ; the known localities * are Samar, Mindanao, and Di- 

 nagat. It was especially common at Bunawan; more than fifty 

 specimens were captured during my collecting there. A few 

 were found burrowed in the roots of large tree ferns {Asplenium 

 7iidus) but only those in fallen trees. Usually specimens were 

 found in the forest, under grass and leaves on the ground. These 

 snakes are very gentle; although I have handled many living 

 specimens, none has ever attempted to bite. They readily take 

 food in captivity. The Manobos who are familiar with this 

 snake appear to have no specific name for it. They do not re- 

 gard it as poisonous. 



OXYRHABDIUM LEPORINUM (GUnther) 



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



(1858) 12. 

 ?Stenognathu^ hrevirostris Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. (1872) 586. 

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



(1873) 169. 

 Rhabdosoma viodestum, part., Gunther, Proc. Zool. Soc. London (1879) 



77. 

 ?Geophis brevirostris Boettger, Ber. Senck. Nat. Ges. (1886) 106, 



Casto de EuEatA, Cat. Fauna Filipinas 1 (1895) 425. 

 Oxyrhabdium leporinum Boulenger, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus. 1 (1893) 



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



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

 lection; collected at Baguio, Benguet, Luzon, June 1, 1915, on 

 the slopes of Mount Santo Tomas at an elevation of about 2,000 



meters, by E. H. Taylor.) 



(Adult female.) Head obtusely 

 pointed, with a very small ros- 

 tral, little higher than wide, 

 barely visible from above ; inter- 

 nasals small, the suture between 

 them one-third to one-fourth that 

 of prefrontals; latter large, 

 rather narrow, five to six times 

 the size of internasals, and near- 

 ly equal to frontal, broadly enter- 

 ing eye and forming its longest 

 suture with loreal, which is a 

 little longer than that formed 

 between the 2 prefrontals; frontal but little longer than wide, 



* Giinther lists Luzon as a known locality, but since he confused the two 

 species it is not improbable that he referred to O. leporinum. 



a 



Fin. 10. Oxyrhabdium leporinuvi (Giin- 

 ther) : after Boulenger ; a, head, dorsal 

 view : b, head, lateral view. 



