GONYOSOMA 153 



Alopccophis chalybeus Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat, Hist. II 4 (1849) 



247. 

 Gonyosoma oxycephabvm Dumeril and Bibron, Erp. Gen. 7 (1854) 



213; GtJNTHEE, Cat. Col. Snakes (1858) 122; Rept. Bi-it. India 



(1864) 294; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. (1861) 688; Jan, Icon. Gen. 



(1869) 31, pi. 1; Stoliczka, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal 3 9 (1870), 



193; 42 (1873) 123; Theobald, Cat. Rept. Brit. India (1876) 189; 



BOETTGER, Ber. Senck. Nat. Ges. (1886) 110; Casto de Elera, Cat. 



Fauna Filipinas 1 (1895) 432; Barbour, Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool. 



Harvard Coll. 44 (1912) 116; Taylor, Philip. .Journ. Sci. § D 



12 (1917) 359. 

 Elaphe oxycephalu Griffin, Philip. Journ. Sci. § A 4 (1909) 597; 



§ D 6 (1911) 260. 



Description of species. — ^(From No. 231, Bureau of Science 

 collection ; collected at Iwahig, Palawan, October, 1910, by C. H. 

 Lamb.) Body slender, elongate, compressed; tail elongate, slen- 

 der; head narrow, subacuminate, slightly distinct from neck; ros- 

 tral about one-third broader than high, visible above, its suture 

 with nasal nearly double that with internasals or first labials; 

 internasals as wide as deep, their mutual suture equal to that 

 with prefrontals, a little longer than wide, five-sided, bending 

 low on side of head, broadly in contact with loreal and pre- 

 ocular; frontal large, equal to its distance from rostral, about 

 one-eighth longer than wide, in contact with preocular, much 

 longer and wider than supraoculars ; parietals longer than wide, 

 larger than frontal, bending down on sides of head, touching 

 only upper postoculars ; nasal divided, the anterior part largest ; 

 loreal nearly three times as long as wide, touching 3 labials ; pre- 

 ocular three times the size of loreal, touching 3 labials and 

 frontal ; 2 postoculars, the superior more than twice as large 

 as the inferior ; 2 anterior temporals, the lower barely in con- 

 tact with lower preocular, the upper touching both ; temporal 

 formula, 2 -|- 3 4 3 ; 9 upper labials, anterior ones higher than 

 wide, sixth and seventh entering orbit, ninth and eighth 

 largest; 13 lower labials, 5 pairs in contact with anterior chin 

 shields, which are about three times as large as posterior; eye 

 small, its diameter contained in length of snout about three 

 times; 30 scale rows on neck, 25 rows around body, smooth 

 anteriorly but more or less distinctly keeled on latter half of 

 body; scales sharp-pointed posteriorly, the median row not en- 

 larged, the outer slightly so ; ventrals, 246 ; anal divided ; sub- 

 caudals, 133, in double rows; ventrals and subcaudals slightly 

 keeled, the edges bending up on sides, slightly notched at 

 bend. 



