BUCEPHALUS CAPENSIS. 
dark coloured bar. The upper and lateral parts of the tail olive-brown, with 
a purplish tint. In some individuals the last half, or even the last two-thirds 
of the body, is also of the last mentioned colour, and the parts of the back 
only towards the head are of the greenish black hue. 
Form.— The figure and arrangement of the scales are the same as in adult 
specimens. The head is broader in proportion to the neck than in a full- 
grown specimen, and the eye is very large. The following are the measure- 
ments, &c., of three young specimens 
SEX OF 
SPECIMEN. 
Male 
Male 
Female 
LENGTH FROM NOSE 
TO. BASE OF TAIL. 
Ft. In. 
0 ioi 
1 4g 
1 8 
length of 
TAIL. 
Ft. In. 
0 3f 
0 6 
0 9j 
ABDOMINAL 
PLATES. 
No. 
180 
188 
175 
SIIBCAUDAL 
SCALES. 
No. 
103-103 
112-112 
91-91 
The colours of the Female scarcely differ from those of the male. 
It is only within the last few months, during which I have been from time to time occupied 
in attentively examining all the specimens I collected in South Africa, of what is commonly 
called the Boom-slange, that I have been able to satisfy myself of the accuracy of M. 
Schlegel’s conclusion, namely, that the four reptiles I had described as so many species, were 
only varieties of one species. At the time I penned the descriptions which were published 
in the Zoological Journal of London, in 1829, I had seen but comparatively few individuals 
of each sort, and not an instance of one partly coloured after one fashion, and partly after 
another. I have now, however, examined several individuals so circumstanced ; and from having 
found the anterior parts coloured, as in the variety A, and the hinder parts as in the 
variety B, or vice versa, I am consequently compelled to consider this snake as one which 
varies extiemely in regard of its colouring; and, therefore, to cancel the remark I have 
made in refeience to the group, in my observations upon Bucephalus viridis ( Reptilia , 
„ iL ^ C "hich, it may be remarked, will require now to be viewed simply as a variety 
o . apensis. The figures now published will give an accurate idea of four of the most 
distinct varieties, and the only ones which we have met with, which do not exhibit more or less 
of the colouring of two, or even of three, of the different varieties. 
Ihe same reasons which induced us in 1829 to consider the Boom-slange as a fitting 
type for a distinct group, still incline us to hold it as such ; and we must see better 
grounds than those advanced by M. Schlegel, before we consider it can be classed with 
propriety in Dendrophis. The peculiar form and arrangement of the scales of this snake 
afford characters by which it is to be readily distinguished from the species of that genus ; 
and the singular character of the rudimeutary fangs which exist at the hinder extremity of 
the maxillary rows of teeth, also concur to justify its removal. As this snake, in our opinion, 
is not provided with a poisonous fluid to instil into wounds which these fangs may inflict, they 
must consequently be intended for a purpose different to those which exist in poisonous 
reptiles. Their use seems to be to offer obstacles to the retrogression of living animals, such as 
4 
