72 
AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. 
The species is, no doubt, highly venomous, hut not having received 
living examples no experiments could he made. In this as in other very 
dangerous snakes, a temporal shield is inserted betweeen the two last upper 
labials; this shield and a scale at the end of the line of mouth have been 
counted as labial shields in the original description, hut they are not, and 
six labials above and below is the correct number. 
PETKODTMON, Krefft. 
Petrodymon, Krefft, Transactions of the Philosophical Society of A 7 . S. Wales for 1865. 
Body rather elongate, rounded ; head depressed, flat, not very 
distinct from neck; eye small, pupil elliptical; subcaudals in two series; 
tail short, distinct from trunk, ending in a conical spine or nail. 
Bed-bellied Snake. Petrodymon cucullatum. 
(Plate YI, figs. 10 and 10a.) 
Diemansia cucullata, Gunther , Ann. and Mag. N. Mist., Ser. 3, vol. 9. p. 129. 
Petrodymon cucullatum, IPrefft^ Transact, of the Phil. Soc. of N. S. Wales , for 1865. 
Scales in 15 rows. 
Abdominal plates, 187. 
Two anal plates. 
Subcaiulal plates, 41/41. 
Total length, 19 inches. T "7: v h,J> 
Head, f inch. 
Tail, 2T inches. 
Purplish brown above, with a series of darker longitudinal lines 
along the upper part of the body, leaving a light elongate mark in the 
middle of each scale ; beneath yellow, bright red in adult specimens, each 
ventral plate clouded on the upper edge with purplish brown much inter, 
rupted on the posterior part of the body. Divisional line of subcaudal plates 
marked in a similar manner, leaving the outer edges of the plates yellowish. 
Upper part of head purplish brown as far as the middle of posterior frontals, 
covering the vertical part of superciliaries, and reaching beyond the 
occipitals; this elliptical spot is joined to the back by a narrow band of 
the same color running along the median line of the neck. A light 
greyish band encircles the dark brown mark, divided by the narrow line 
Ac \ 
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