HERPETOLOGY. 337 



Family DRYOPHID^E. 



Dryophis Oatesii, 1 Giinther in Oates's Matabele Land, ed. i, App. 

 p. 330, pi. D (1881). (Plate IV.) 



Allied to Dryophis Kirtlandii, but the rostral shield is not reverted 

 to the upper surface of the head ; the prae-ocular reaches to the upper 

 surface only, remaining far distant from the vertical. Two post- 

 oculars ; temporals 1+2 + 2, the anterior being the smallest, and in 

 contact with the upper post-ocular. 



Head with very peculiar coloration ; the upper surface is orna- 

 mented by a pink T-shaped figure, the horizontal bar stretching from 

 eye to eye, and the vertical part occupying the middle of the occipital 

 shields. This figure is finely mottled with black. An irregular, 

 oblique, blackish line from the eye to the penultimate upper labial, 

 the pink temporal scales margined with black. Body coloured as in 

 D. Kirtlandii. 



Total length, 47 inches; the tail measuring 19 inches; length of 

 the cleft of the mouth, 14 lines. 



1 [In the former edition of this work the generic name of this species was spelt Dryiophis 

 on the authority of Schlegel (' Ess.,' 1837, vol. ii. p. 246), who, evidently by a lapsus, eites 

 that as the spelling of Dalman, the originator of the name, without, however, giving a precise 

 reference to the latter's work. It appears, moreover, that all subsequent writers on snakes 

 have omitted the reference to Dalman ; my friend, Mr. H. W. Bates, F.R.S., has, however, 

 lately supplied me with the passage in question, and from this it appears that Dalman's 

 original spelling of the name was Dryophis, when he first proposed it for this genus of snakes 

 (' Analecta Entomologica,' 1823, p. 7, note), in place of the name Dryi?ius, proposed by 

 Merrem ('Syst. der Anp.,' 1820, p. 136), but already appropriated by Latreille (' Hist. Nat. 

 des Crust, et des Ins.,' 1802-5, torn. xiii. p. 228) for a genus of hymenopterous insects. The 

 spelling Dryophis was followed by Boie (' Isis,' 1826, p. 982), and subsequently by other 

 authors, and has now been adopted by Dr. Giinther, as at once etymologically more correct, 

 and that which was used by the author of the name. — Ed.] 



