52 
AUSTRALIAN SNAIvES. 
Australian Short-tailed Snake. Brachyurophis australis. 
(Plate XI, figs. 3, 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d.) 
Simotes australis, Krefft , Proc. Zool. Soc., 1864, p. 180. 
Brachyurophis australis, Gtlir ., Ann. and J\Iag. Nat . Hist ., 3rd Series, vol. XV, p. 97. 
Scales in 17 rows. 
Abdominal plates, 160 to 163. 
Two anal plates. 
Subcaudals, in two series, 18/18. 
Total length, 11.T inches. 
Head, 4 lines. 
Tail, ].l inch. 
Body cylindrical, rounded; head short, conical, not distinct from 
neck ; tail short, ending in a blunt point. Rostral shield much produced, 
flat in front, pointed behind, reaching backwards to between the anterior 
frontals, and slightly grooved at its base. One nasal, one anterior, and two 
posterior oculars; two temporals (in one specimen a third smaller one 
behind). Eye small; pupil sub elliptical, erect; no loreal—replaced by the 
nasal and anterior ocular; six upper labials, the third and fourth coming 
into the orbit; occipitals short, not much rounded behind, and but slightly 
forked. The general color is red, very bright on the posterior part of the 
body and tail; all the scales are slightly margined—some, much darker than 
others, have a whitish (in spirits) spot in the middle, and form into a 
series of half rings, of which there are about flfty-six upon the body and 
tail. The head is covered by a black band across the occiput, leaving the 
snout free, commencing from below the eye, and marking the fourth and 
fifth upper labials, the vertical, and nearly the whole of the occipitals; 
this black band is divided from a second band covering the neck by a 
whitish space. 
The first specimen of this snake was discovered on the Clarence 
River; since then another example has been received from the Burdekin 
River in Queensland. The northern one is darker in colour, has six upper 
and lower labials and one nasal shield. The Clarence River specimen is 
somewhat injured, and there appear to be two nasal shields instead of one; 
the upper labials are five in number, and the lower six. 
