97 
eleventh to thirteenth lower labials with a brown spot ; rest of 
the head brown above, pale yellow beneath, as is also the ground 
color of the body and tail ; body with sixty-two irregular and 
greatly interrupted transverse dark-brown bands, twice or thrice 
as broad as the interspaces, and frequently broken up into large 
irregularly-shaped spots ; abdominal shields ornamented with 
scattered small paler brown spots, which become more accentuated 
posteriorly ; tail with sixteen much more regular transverse bands 
and the sub-caudal plates with a narrow sutural dark-brown band. 
The larger specimen of the two examined is a rather roughly 
prepared skin measuring four feet ten inches, of which the tail is 
about ten inches ; the smaller specimen measures twenty-two 
inches, the tail being slightly over three inches. 
Bkachysoma triste. 
Glyphodon tristis, Gnth., Brit . Mus. Catal. Colubr. Snakes , p. 
211 (1858). 
Scales in seventeen series ; abdominal plates one-hundred and 
seventy-one to one hundred and seventy-nine; anal plate double; 
sub caudal plates in two rows, forty-five to fifty-two in each. 
Body moderately elongate and cylindrical ; head small, depressed, 
scarcely distinct from the neck ; tail of moderate length, slightly 
compressed especially posteriorly, and terminating in an elongate 
blunt pointed scale ; muzzle short, broad, and obtuse ; eye very 
small, looking outward and partially upward, the pupil round. 
Nostril pierced between two nasals, the posterior small ; rostral 
more than twice as broad as high, rounded or very obtuselv angular 
above ; anterior frontals small, posterior large, sharply bent 
downward on the side of the head so as to form a broad suture 
with the second upper labial, and thus replace theloreal ; vertical 
hexagonal, one-third longer than broad, obtusely angular anteriorly 
and rather less than rectangular posteriorly, the lateral margins 
very slightly convergent ; occipitals much longer than the vertical 
and equally, or less, broad, their length twice their breadth, 
angular behind ; a rather small supraciliary ; a single preocular 
entering the upper half of the eye only, the lower half being 
margined by the large third upper labial ; two small, equal-sized 
postoculars ; four series of temporal shields, the anterior pair not 
much larger than the others, the upper in contact with both post- 
oculars, the lower partially dividing the two posterior upper 
labials ; six upper labials, the third and fourth entering the eye ; 
six lower labials, the first forming a broad suture behind the tri- 
angular mental ; two pairs of elongated chin-shields. Colors — 
Upper surface of head brown, the sides with a tinge of chestnut, 
especially on the anterior temporal region ; sometimes with a 
broad light brown collar behind the occipitals ; lower surface pale 
brown, gradually shading into the dirty yellow of the abdominal 
legion ; dorsal scales nearly black, all the scales with a narrow 
