AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. 63 
Body elongate and rounded; head and tail not distinct from trunk; 
scales rather elongate, and not much imbricated ; shields of the head 
regular, vertical nearly twice as long as broad, and not larger than the super- 
ciliaries ; rostral very low, scarcely reaching to the top of the snout; 
posterior frontals much larger than the anterior ones; nostrils in the 
middle of a single nasal shield; one pre and two post oculars; temporals 
2+ 2; uniform dark olive brown above, bluish powdered with black below ; 
tail salmon-colored towards the tip; a dark-edged white streak from 
below the nostril through the labials to the side of the neck; eye of 
moderate size, with a bright brown spot above the pupil. | 
The present species is peculiar to Tasmania, and allied to Hoplo- 
cephalus Mastersii and H. signatus ; it differs from H. Mastersii in not 
having a collar, and from H. signatus in having only one white streak 
on each side of the head, as also in its more elongate vertical, and the 
much smaller size. 
Masters’ Snake. Hoplocephalus mastersi. 
(Plate XII, fig. 6.) 
-Hoplocephalus mastersii, Krefft, Proc. Zool. Soc., 26 June, 1866. 
Scales in 15 rows. 
Abdominal plates, 136. 
One anal plate. 
Subcaudal plates, 40 or more. 
Total length, 14 inches. 
Head, } inch. 
Tail, 2 inches. 
Head triangular, distinct from trunk, and pointed in front ; vertical 
three times as long as broad; all the scales of the head much elongate ; 
six upper and seven lower labials, and one anterior and two postoculars, 
the anterior one grooved. 
Dark olive-green above and below, with the exception of a 
yellowish-white elongate patch in the middle of each ventral scale ; all the 
scales are very finely striated or keeled (which is not discernible with the 
