APPENDIX. 
19 
Inhabits most parts of Southern Africa, but specimens are most easily obtained near Cape 
Town and on the south-eastern coast. 
L YMPROPHIS AURORA, Fitzinger , Systema Reptilium, fasc. primus, page 25, 1843. Coronella 
Aurora, Sclileg. Essai sur la Physionomie des Serpens, part descript, page 75. Coluber Aurora, 
Lirm. Mus. Ad. Fr. i. page 25, t. xix. fig. 1. Seba, 2, t. lxxviii. fig. 3. 
This snake occurs throughout Southern Africa, but nowhere in abundance. In the Colony it 
is, from its moving much during the night, known, like Aspidelaps lubricus, by the name of Nacht Slang. 
THELOTORNIS, n. g. 
Ch- Gen. Head wider than the neck. Body slender, and much compressed. Maxillary teeth 
slender, thinly set, rather long ; the liindermost longest, and grooved. One nasal, two frenal, one 
preocular, and three postocular plates. Nostril in nasal plate. Pupil transversely oval. Scales of 
the body in oblique rows, laterally much imbricate Scales along vertebral line rhomboidal and carinated. 
THELOTORNIS CAPENSIS, n. s. 
Head Ion-, rather narrow, quadrangular, and depressed; nose broad, and anteriorly slightly 
arched; upper surface of head, over each eye, rather prominent; sales of head nearly perpendicular; 
nostril small, between nasal and freno-nasai plates; eyes large, pupil transversely subovate ; neck con- 
siderably narrower than the head. Body slender, compressed, and slightly thicker at the middle than 
toward either extremity. Tail long, nearly cylindrical, tapered, and terminated by a fine horny spme. 
Rostral plate semicircular ; naso-rostral plates quadrangular, broadest behind ; fronto-nasal plates fi ve 
or six sided ; frontal plate long and five-sided, broadest anteriorly, pointed posteriorly, the anterior side, 
which is in’ contact with fronto-nasal plates, transverse ; the anterior lateral side short, the posterior 
lateral sides long, slightly curved, and converge to a point behind. Palpebral plate square, posteriorly 
narrow, almost pointed anteriorly; occipital plates four-sided, broadest anteriorly, arched externally, 
and rounded posteriorly; behind each occipital plate a large, irregularly, five-sided plate, and between 
these one shaped somewhat like an hour-glass. Nasal plate semilunar, or somewhat pear-shaped, its 
inferior extremity edged below by a process of the rostral plate, which at that part forms the margin of 
the upper lip ; freno-nasai plate small, narrow, and longitudinally longest ; frenal plate subtriangular, 
the base behind. Preocular plate long and narrow, arched above, straight below, and widest anteriorly. 
Postocular plates three, quadrangular; two narrow plates behind the middle postocular plate, the 
liindermost between the plate lying outside of hindor part of occipital plate, and the plates of the upper 
lip. Plates of upper lip eight, two forming the lower edge of the orbit ; plates of lower lip nine or ten ; 
the first submental plate long, narrow, and somewhat five-sided ; the other four in pairs, the first 
pair large, quadrangular, and internally in contact; the last pair long', subtriangular, and separated 
from each other by the intervention of smaller plates. Scales of the body, near the abdominal plates, 
ovate and pointed, those of the vertebral row distinctly rhomboidal, and carinated, the intermediate ones 
long, narrow, and oblique at the point which is formed by the extremity of the upper edge. '1 hey are 
arranged in waved transverse rows, 19 in each row, and the rows having each three more or less 
distinct angles, one on each side, towards abdominal plates, and one on the vertebral line, all laterally 
imbricate the mesial or inner portion of each scale lying over the external portion of the one nearer to 
the vertebral line. Scales of the tail large, six-sided, rather longer than broad, and scarcely imbricate. 
Abdominal plates 102, long, much arched, and without any indication of an angle towards their 
