1874.] 



93 



[German. 



the snout, and from each other, about one-fourth of the length of the 

 head; mouth inferior, deeply cleft, outline sharply curved in its 



posterior third ; tail smaller than the body, tapering abruptly in the 

 anterior third, posterior two-thirds slender. 



Rostral shield very small, five-angled ; prefrontal one. small, rhom- 

 boid, posterior angle rounded, transverse diameter the greater ; post- 

 frontals six-sided, the smaller next the loral, rounded angle backward ; 

 vertical moderate, six-angled, narrower forward ; superciliaries 

 shorter than the vertical, five-sided, narrow, wider above the post- 

 orbitals; occipitals large, separated in front by the angle of the ver- 

 tical, extending around the orbitals to the sixth labial ; postorbitals 

 three, the lower, small and four-sided, rests on the fourth and fifth 

 labials, the middle, larger and five-sided, upon the sixth, the upper is 

 largest and four-sided; one anterior, narrow, rests on the third labial, 

 extends to the anterior lateral angle of the vertical ; one loral, small, 

 four-sided, smaller next the frontal; nasals single, nearly elliptical, 

 bearing the minute circular nostril nearer the prefrontal, grooved 

 from the nostril to the lower, posterior angle; upper labials eight, 

 third and fourth entering into the orbit, sixth and seventh larger ; 

 lower eleven, fifth and sixth larger ; five shields between labials and 

 occipitals. 



Scales of the body in nineteen rows, smooth, hexagonal, those in 

 the vertebral rows twice as long as wide, in the exterior wider than 

 long, those of the tail strongly keeled in the two vertebral rows, 

 slightly in the next two; abdominals 128; anal bifid; subcaudals 58 

 pairs. 



Color in longitudinal bands ; the vertebral dark brown, five scales 

 and two half-scales in width, extending over the head to the upper 

 portions of rostral and labials; the first laterals of yellowish, brown, 

 from the occiput, two half-scales wide; the second of dark brown, 

 two scales and two halves ; the exterior of brownish yellow, two scales 



