AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. 98 
TORTOISE-HEADED Brown Sra Snake. Hmydocephalus tuberculatus. 
Emydocephalus tuberculatus, Krefft, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1869. 
Scales in 17 rows. 
Abdominal plates, 135. 
One anal plate. 
Subcaudal plates, 30. 
Total length, 32 inches. 
Head, 1 inch. 
Tail, 54 inches. 
Girth, 4 inches. 
Head short, but longer than in the previous species ; neck rounded ; 
all the other parts of the body compressed, very stout, with strongly com- 
pressed tail, ending in a large flat scale or spine divided into three 
segments, scales very large, hexagonal, the greater portion fully one quarter 
of an inch wide, much imbricated and tuberculated. Abdominal plates 
large, with a fold or ridge in the middle, but not keeled; each plate covered 
with several elongated tubercles. Head shielded, the sutures of the frontals 
and nasals forming right angles; vertical nearly rounded; superciliaries 
large, five-sided ; occipitals short, much broader than long. Three upper 
and lower labials, the middle one very large, covering nearly the whole 
gape; the middle lower labial shield very irregular in form, with one or 
two indentions. One anterior and two posterior oculars ; eye of moderate 
size. General color uniformly purplish brown ; some of the scales on the 
side mottled with lighter brown spots. 
Habitat, probably the Australian Seas; a single specimen in the 
Museum collection. 
DISTHIRA, Lacép. 
Body compressed, of moderate length; head shielded above ; a pair 
of anterior frontals between the nasals which are small. Scales imbricate ; 
ventral shields distinct, but small. 
