AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. 
59 
the ventrals, which in hundreds of specimens of H. variegatus are always 
yellow throughout. An indication of the abdominal edge or keel may be 
traced in II. variegatus, but it is not so defined as that of the present 
species. The snake was named in honor of W. J. Stephens, Esq., M.A., 
Oxon, and its habitat is Port Macquarie, on the Hastings River; it occurs 
probably also on the Manning River. 
Pale-headed Snake. Hoplocephalus pallidiceps. 
(Plate XI, fig. 1.) 
Hoplocephalus pallidiceps, Gunther, Cat. of Colubr. SnaJces in Coll. Brit. Mus., p. 214. 
Scales in 15 rows. 
Abdominal plates, 227. 
One anal plate. 
Subcaudals in one series, 55 or more. 
Total length of adult, 30 inches. 
Head, 1 inch. 
Tail, 4 inches. 
Dr. Gunther’s original description is as follows:—Scales in fifteen 
rows; second and third upper lahial shields truncated above. Blackish 
olive; head lighter; scales of the outer rows with yellowish apex. Body 
rather elongate, rounded; tail rather short, not very distinct from trunk, 
tapering; head somewhat similar to that of Glyphodon unicolor, rather 
depressed, with broad, flat crown, hardly distinct from neck; muzzle 
rather short, hroad, rounded in front; eye small, pupil subclliptical; 
rostral moderate, reaching the surface of head; anterior frontals moderate, 
broader than long, rounded in front; posterior frontals rather large, five¬ 
sided, each with two hinder edges, forming together a right angle; vertical 
six-sided, longer than hroad, with parallel outer edges, an obtuse angle in 
front, and an acute one behind; occipitals moderate, sometimes rather 
elongate, sometimes obtuse and rounded behind; superciliary moderate; two 
posterior oculars, and one anterior, just reaching the surface of the crown. 
This species differs somewhat from the other Iloplocephali, in the shields 
replacing the loreal; the second and third upper labials, being truncated 
above, do not participate in replacing it. Nasal father elongate, sharply 
