98 
brownish -yellow edging, becoming more prominent posteriorly, 
and giving the appearance of oblique duplicate cross-bands ; lateral 
scales black with a broad white margin ; abdominal and sub- 
caudal scales with a black spot on the outer margin. 
The single specimen sent by Sir Wm. Macgregor, measures 
twenty-six and a half inches, of which the head measures three- 
fifths of an inch — to the posterior angle of the occipital shield 
and the tail three and nine-tenths inches, or about five and three- 
fourths of the length of the head and body together. A second 
example, from Somerset, Cape York, in the collection of the 
Australian Museum, to which it was presented by Walter Powell 
Esq., differs in no respect whatever from the specimen described 
above, except in the comparatively longer tail, which is five and 
two-fifths in the length of the head and body. 
The ascertained range of this seemingly uncommon species is 
North-eastern Australia, ( G anther, fide M acgillivray ), Cape York, 
(Ramsay, fide Rowell), and St. Joseph’s ’ River, British New 
Guinea ( Macgregor ). 
It should be noted that in the specimen described which has 
been little more than a month in spirits, there is no trace of the 
“ broad, lighter, brownish collar” mentioned by Drs. Gunther and 
Ramsay, unless the faint chestnut tinge on the anterior temporals 
are to be taken as an indication of it ; also that it is a very hand- 
some snake, and certainly does not merit its specific name. 
# Tlie °nly points worth noting in Dr. Gunther’s original descrip- 
tion are that in neither of the specimens now examined does the 
posterior frontal form a suture with two upper labials, nor are the 
lateral margins of the vertical shield “ much convergent.” 
Since writing the above I have discovered in the Museum 
Collection a third specimen forwarded by the Rev. S. Macfarlane 
from South-east Cape, New Guinea, and measuring about thirty- 
one inches. 
Acanthopiiis. 
I lie principal differences which T can discern between Sir Wm. 
Macleay’s A . lewis , and the common Australian Death Adder lie 
(1) in the slightly weaker carination of the dorsal scales in the 
former, a character which however is plainly visible at least as far 
as the middle of the back, both in the single specimen forwarded 
by Sir William Macgregor, and since returned to him, and the 
type specimen now deposited in the Museum of the Sydney 
University ; (2) in the mytich more prominent suborbital shield ; 
(3) in the smaller number (113 - 117) of abdominal plates ; and 
(4) in the less robust habit of the northern form. It is stated 
by Mr. Gerard Kretft in his diagnosis of the genus that the 
nostrils are pierced “ between two shields,” but in the examination 
of several specimens belonging to the three described forms I can 
find but one large nasal shield on each side, near the centre of 
