36 AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. 
“ Pale (in spirits). Back with five longitudinal series of dark olive 
spots, which are more or less confluent, forming cross bands, closer 
together on the hinder part of the body, appearing olive with irregular 
whitish lines ; head with a black streak above the lip, through the eye, to 
the side of the neck; head-shields brown, with a black spot ; loreal shield 
square; anterior ocular large; posterior oculars 3, small; interloreal 
scales 2, small. The front of the body has a narrow longitudinal streak 
on each side, between the spots.”—Gray’s Description of the Brit. Mus. 
Specimens. 
The few specimens in the Museum collection are the gift of 
William Macleay, Esq., F.L.S., who obtained them from Port Denison. 
The general form is shorter and thicker than the Rock Snakes treated of 
before, and in all probability the size of old individuals does not exceed 5 or 
6 feet. The ground color is a pale olive or brown, with five rows of irregular 
brown or black spots from the head to the tip of the tail, beneath it is pale 
straw yellow. The head is regularly shielded to between the eyes, and 
three of the hinder shields and the lower lip are pitted. The tail is very 
short, the plates and the under side of it forming partly two rows, with a 
dark central streak from the vent to the tip. Head-shields with a few 
black spots and margins ; eye of moderate size, with elliptical and erect 
pupil; a dark streak runs from behind the eye to the nostril. About the 
habitat of this reptile little is known, beyond the donor’s statement that 
it was obtained at Port Denison.* 
* Captain Edwards, of the schooner “ Melania” (who has always been a liberal donor to the Museum), 
obtained a species of Nardoa on Sweer’s Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. This snake differs from NW. gilbertii 
in having a shorter and thicker head, a more elongate vertical shield, and the last pair of frontals largest ; the 
color is a dull olive-brown, the dark spots very indistinct, and not confluent posteriorly ; no black marks can be 
traced on the head, except the temporal streak behind the eye. 
Captain Edwards has promised to supply the Trustees with more specimens, when the question whether 
this snake is new or not will be decided. 
