1846.] Notes on the Fauna of the Nicobar Islands. 377 



been orange- red ; while the body has evidently been vivid green : colours 

 which probably depend partly on season, over and above the change- 

 ableness of hue which these reptiles exhibit at all seasons. The Nico- 

 barian specimen is a male, in apparently the full brilliancy of its colour- 

 ing indicative of the season of propagation, when no doubt it had the 

 mishap to be secured. 



Of the Ophidia, I can only enumerate three species. 



Python (probably P. Schneider!). This was observed both by Mr. 

 Barbe and Capt. Lewis ; but I have seen no specimen. 



Trigonocephalus Cantori, nobis, n. s. A typical member of this genus, 

 having 169 abdominal plates, and 214 subcaudal scutellse. Length of one 

 specimen thirty inches. This large one was much injured when it was kill- 

 ed, and appears to have shrunk considerably from drying before it was put 

 into spirit ; from which causes it is not easy to describe its markings, 

 but it seems to have been curiously blotched with red — which colour is 

 not observable in a young specimen, fifteen inches and a half long. Both 

 have a distinct lateral whitish line, bordering the abdominal scutse and 

 ceasing at the vent. Scales slightly imbricated. The young appears to 

 have been dull olive-green above, mottled throughout with a double series 

 of dusky blotches, semi-alternately disposed, with smaller spots and 

 blotches on the sides, below which occurs the whitish lateral line : under- 

 pays greyish, from a freckling of minute dusky specks on a pale ground : 

 on the head the markings tend more or less to be obsolete ; but a whitish 

 band proceeds backward from below the eye, and in the young is con- 

 tinued upwards almost at a right angle, and there is also a whitish patch 

 posterior to the broad angle of the jaws, but unconnected with the lateral 

 line of the body. The adult appears to be further variegated above, by 

 scattered white spots composed of one, two, or rarely three scales each. 

 The young is proportionally much more slender than the adult, and 

 the triangularity of its head is less strongly marked. 



Pelamydes platurus : having a much greater portion than usual of its 

 tail banded ; the bands diminishing to festoons anteriorly, until they are 

 gradually lost. 



The few Reptilia here enumerated, do not require any comment : three 

 of them are marine species, viz. the two Turtles and the Pelamydes ; 

 but the former are, I believe, more nearly connected with the Islands by 

 depositing their eggs upon the shores of them. 



