AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. 
39 
The figure referred to in SchlegeVs Abbildungen, t. 46, f. 14, repre¬ 
sents the head of the snake generally known as Diemenia reticulata (Plate 
XII, fig. 10). In the British Museum Catalogue the habitat of this snake 
( H. psammophis) is given as Port Essington and North Australia. Our 
Museum specimens were collected at Port Denison. 
Spotted-headed Snake. Diemenia olivacea. 
(Plate YI, figs. 9 and 9a.) 
Demansia olivacea, Gray, Zool. Mis., p. 5i, Demansia (Diemenia) olivacea, Gnthr., Cat. 
of Col lib r. SnaJces in Col. Brit. Mus. , p. 212. 
Dr. Gray’s description is condensed thus:—“Habit moderate; 
olive green, skin between the scales black; scales of the sides with two 
white streaks at the base; a dark streak from the hack edge of the eye to 
the angle of the mouth.” 
The reptile figured, which is in all probability identical with Gray’s 
typical specimen, may he described as follows:— 
Scales in 16 rows. 
Two anal plates. 
Abdominal plates, 180. 
Subcaudal plates, 85/85. 
Total length, 44 inches. 
Head, 1J inch. 
Tail, 10 inches. 
The general colour above is a dark olive green, or rather a rich brown 
with a greenish tinge, much darker posteriorly, the tail in particular, 
which towards the tip is salmon-coloured. The two white streaks at the base 
of each scale, which Gray mentions, are best seen when the epidermis is 
removed, or perhaps in living specimens when the skin is stretched, which 
is otherwise black between the scales. There are black spots on the hinder 
upper labials, Avhicli, in some specimens, may form a streak; in young 
and half-grown subjects the inner margin of the ocular shields is yellow ; 
the anterior ocular being (as is usual in the members of this genus), 
deeply indented. The head-shields are more or less black-spotted, but 
not always very regular; chin and neck pale yellow below, the first 8 or 
10 abdominal plates sometimes with a sharply defined black margin, 
which gradually becomes interrupted in the centre, and about the middle of 
the body is altogether obsolete. In some examples the abdominal plates are 
