192 ] 
RECORDS OF W.A. MUSEUM. 
Localities. — This well marked variety is confined to Central 
and Western Australia. Messrs. Lucas and Frost record it from 
Alice Springs and Charlotte Waters, Central Australia, and Dr. 
Werner from Northam, W.A. In the Australian Museum are 
specimens from Perth and Strelley River, Pilbara. Several speci- 
mens of D. psammophis from Bourke and Moree, western N.S.W., 
belong to the typical variety, while one from North Australia is the 
form described by Macleay as D. papuensis. 
DEMANSIA MODESTA, Gunther. 
Cacophis modesta, Gunther, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (4), IX, 1872, p. 35, pi. III,, 
fig. C. 
Ftirina ramsayi, Macleay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., X, 1885. p. 61. 
,, I, Lucas and Frost, Kept. '■ Horn ” Sci. Expdn., II, 1896, p. 149. 
? Brachysoma sulherlandi, de Vis, Proc. Roy. Soc. Q'land., I, 1884, p. 139. 
? Pseudelaps sutimlandi, Boulenger, Cat. Sn. Brit. Mus., Ill, i8g6, p. 320. 
? Psendelaps sulherlandi, Longman. Mem. Q'land. Mus., I, 1912, p. 24. 
Diemenia modesta, Boulenger, Cat. Sn. Brit. Mus., III., i8g6, p. 320. 
Scales 17 rows. Temp, i -|- i or 2, V. 154-178, S.c. 38-51 
pairs. 
This species is at once distinguished from its congeners, D. 
textilis and D. affinis, by its smaller number of ventral and sub- 
caudal plates. In the specimens before me, all of which are young, 
the dark cross bands vary considerably according to the age of the 
specimen. They become indistinct, in some cases quite obsolete, at 
a somewhat earlier stage than do the bands in young examples of 
D. textilis. I have not seen any fully adult examples of this species, 
but, judging from Dr. Boulenger’s description, the cross bands in 
some specimens remain throughout life, as in exceptional cases in 
D. textilis. 
I have examined the three specimens from Milparinka, western 
N.S.W,, labelled types of Fufina ramsayi, Macleay, and find they 
are identical with the young of D. modesta. There are some dis- 
crepancies in Macleay’s description. According to that author the 
ventrals are 162 and the subcaudals 38 pairs in the largest speci- 
men, whereas I find them to be 178 and 43 pairs respectively. In 
the second largest specimen they read V. 165, S.c. 49 pairs, and in 
the smallest, V. 169 I, and S.c. 45 pairs. In the latter specimen, 
which is apparently just hatched, the frontal is twice as broad as 
the supraocular, and proportionately large. This feature I have 
observed in very young snakes of other species. 
