.38 
AKSTKALIAN SNAKES. 
DIEMBKIA/ Gray. 
Body and tail moderate or slender, rounded; head high, quadran¬ 
gular, with rather short rounded muzzle; rostral moderate, vertical, 
narrow; no loreal, which is replaced by the conjunction of posterior 
frontal (bent down on the sides), of anterior ocular, of second (triangular) 
upper labial, and of posterior nasal; one anterior, two posterior oculars; 
two nasals, nostrils between; scales smooth, not much imbricated, in 
fifteen or seventeen rows; anal bifid; subcaudals two-rowed; grooved fang 
in front, a series of smaller equal teeth behind. 
Schlegel’s Snake. Diemema psammophis. 
Elaps psammophis, Schlegel, Ess. II, p. 45, and Abbild., t. 46, fig. 14. Pseudoelaps 
psammophidius, Bum. Sf Bibr., p. 1234. Diemansia (Diemenia) psammophis, Gnthr., Cat. 
of Colubr. Snakes in Col. Brit. Mus., p. 212. 
Scales in 15 rows. 
Two anal plates. 
Abdominals, 223. 
Subcaudals, 97/97. 
Total length, 6 feet 7 inches. 
Head, inch. 
Tail, 16 inches. 
Body elongate and slender; head shields very elongate, vertical 
broad anteriorly, becoming narrow towards behind; eye large, pupil 
rounded; preocular shield deeply grooved, also a groove on the lower 
edge of the rostral shield, six upper and lower labials with a large tem¬ 
poral shield between the two last of the upper series. General colour 
brown above ; sides and abdominal plates of the anterior half of the body 
bluish grey, the abdominals somewhat lighter in the centre; all the upper 
scales on this part red-edged; the posterior part much fighter in colour, 
and the scales dimly margined with bluish grey, the marking appearing 
very prominent wherever a portion of the epidermis has been removed; 
the abdominal plates assume a yellow hue, are at first powdered or clouded 
with black, and become clearer towards the tail, which from the vent 
to the tip is pale straw yellow. Dr. Gray’s short description is as follows 
“ Habit very slender; forehead very convex. Above nearly greenish olive; 
rostral shield without cross streak.” 
* This is the correct spelling of the word, which evidently has been derived from Van Diemen (’s Land). 
Originally written Demansia by Dr. Gray, it has since been altered into Diemansia by myself (Colubr. 
Snakes, p. 254), and into Diemenniaby the Editor of the Proceedings of the Zoological Society (1863). {Gunther.) 
