Annals of the Transvaal Museum, 
93 
Remarks on Specific Characters of Certain Species. 
M . homalocephala Wieg. — The British Museum Catalogue description 
for this species gives the dorsals as tricarinate, and this is the case in the 
Port Elizabeth Museum specimens, but in the specimens of the Natal 
Government Museum from M’seleni, Zululand, they are very strongly 
five or even seven carinate. 
In these same specimens the subocular is quite twice the size of either 
the fourth or fifth upper labials ; the British Museum Catalogue descrip- 
tion represents this condition as unusual. The separation of the pre- 
frontals seems to be fairly constant ; out of a very long series of specimens 
I have found only one exception. In one other case the prefrontals and 
the fronto-nasal had completely fused together. Another almost invariable 
character is the union of the parietals, but rarely this also fails. As regards 
the colour markings, a very constant and perhaps invariable character is 
afforded by the white lateral streak, which is very like that of M. varia 
Pet. The dark-brown lateral band is sometimes very broad and distinct, 
and at other times reduced and ill-defined. 
M. depressa Pet.— In view of the great variation exhibited by M. 
homalocephala this species may prove to be synonymous with the latter ; 
the only satisfactory feature of distinction is that of the suboculars, which 
certainly present some degree of variation in homalocephala. Judging 
from the author’s figure the species agrees fairly well with the Zululand 
variety of M. homalocephala . 
M . peringueyi Boul. — Out of six specimens examined one had the 
prefrontals separated, and in another specimen (juvenile) the parietals 
formed a suture in the mid-line. 
M. trivittata Cuv. — The condition of the head scutes is highly variable. 
The supranasals seem to be invariably in contact. The prefrontals usually 
do not form a median suture, at any rate in Transvaal specimens. Very 
rarely the parietals form a short suture behind ; there is usually a pair 
of nuchals, which may or may not meet in the mid-line, and occasionally 
are broken up into scales. The subocular may be scarcely any bigger 
than the other labials, or more often it may be nearly twice the size of 
any one of the others. The first loreal may or may not reach the first 
upper labial. The subdigital lamellae are sharply unicarinate in young 
and half -grown specimens, but only bluntly keeled in adults. The scales 
of the sole are spinose in young, but in adults are not so, or only in slight 
degree. Colour markings are pretty constant, and the exceptions are 
mostly old females, which in some cases have no markings dorsally other 
than a faint ill-defined pale mid-dorsal band. Occasionally, however, 
young or half -grown specimens have this plain coloration. 
In some specimens which have the normal colour pattern there is a 
trace of a more ventral pale lateral line, beginning on the upper lip, passing 
through the ear, and going as far as the hind limb, being most distinct 
in the neck region. The dorso-lateral bands may start over the eyes or 
more posteriorly in the neck. The majority of our specimens have either 
thirty-four or thirty-two scales round the body ; the adpressed limbs only 
just meet, or fail to do so. Our largest specimens reach a length of 292 mm, 
