830 EEPTILIA. 



been referred to it. Its ventrals are 163 and its sub-caudals 76, and it has 26 rows of 

 strongly keeled scales. The scales on the upper surface of the head are small and 

 tubercular, the scales on the temporal region being only feebly keeled. The two 

 supranasals are separated from each other by two shields and by a small granule 

 in front of the left shield, but such an arrangement is evidence itseK of variabihty 

 in this region. Two plates between the loreal and supranasals. The first labial 

 is confluent with the nasal. Compare with this the following characters of the 

 type of T. purptireus, Gray. The colour is uniform reddish-brown above, with a 

 tinge of purple on the side of the head and indications of a pale lateral line along 

 the body ; the ventrals dusky, numbering 164, and the sub-caudals 61 ; the rows of 

 scales 28. The upper surface of the head is covered with rather small tubercular 

 scales ; the scales of the body being moderately keeled. No azygos shield, but two 

 small shields, one behind the other, between the supranasals. In Cantor's specimens 

 of T. puniceus there is an azygos shield and the superciliaries are sometimes divided, 

 and there is a long subocular which are some of the characters assigned by Stohczka 

 to T. mutabilis. The first labial in the type and in T. puniceus is united to the nasal, 

 as in T. mutabilis. In the types of T. puniceus there are, as in T. carinatus and 

 as occasionally in T. mutabilis, 3 rows of scales between the infraoculars and labials. 

 The coloration of T. mutabilis is much the same as in T. puniceus. In the type 

 of the former species, I have counted 25 rows of scales, so that the scales are thus 

 only two rows in excess of the snake from the same area described by Steindachner 

 as T. labialis, and which agrees in other respects with T. purpureus, from which 

 T. cantoris, Blyth, does not appear to be separable. 



This snake was found in the forest surrounding Ponsee, at an elevation of 

 3,500 feet, and it has been found on the east coast of China. 



Tbimeresurus erythtjeus, Cantor. 



Rnssell, Ind. Serpt., vol. ii, 1801, pi. 20, 



Trigonocephalus erytlmrus, Cantor, Proe., Zool. Soc, 1839, p. 31. 



Trimeresums albolabris. Gray, Zool. Miscell., 1842, p. 48. 



Trimeresunis erythurus, Gray, Cat. Snakes, B. M., 1848, App., p. 115; Giinther, Rept. Brit. Ind., 

 1864, p. 386 ; Steindach., Reise Novara Rept., 1867, p. 86 ; Theobald, Journ. Linn. Soc, vol. x, 

 1868, p. 64; id., Dum., Cat. Rept. B. Ind.,j!;a«, 1876, p. 220; Fayrer, Thanatophidia, 1872, 

 pi. 14 ; Stoliczka, Journ. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xxxix, 1870, p. 217; id., op. cit., vol. xlii, 1873, 

 p. 115; Anderson, id., op. cit., vol. xl, p. 37. 



The head in front of the angle of the mouth broad, nearly twice the breadth 

 of the space between the anterior angle of the eyes. Snout rather pointedly 

 arched. Two pairs of shields on the upper part of the snout, the anterior pair in 

 contact behind the rostral. A small azygos shield sometimes intercalated between 

 them and the rostral, but not separating them entirely from that sliield. These two 

 pairs of shields, and the small azygos one, when it occurs, evidently result from the 

 breakmgup of one original pair. Superciliaries elongated and not divided. The 

 second labial forms the front of the facial pit. The nasal is united to the first 



