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Show 218 MR. W. T. BLANFORD ON REPTILES [Feb. I, biting longitudinal bands. It may be remarked that the distribution of colour appears to be very characteristic of the different forms of Cylindrophis. But there are also structural peculiarities by which the present form is separated from all previously described. In the common species, C. rufus, all the head-shields are proportionally shorter, the frontals are broader than long, and the distance between the eyes more than the length of the snout. The ventral shields also are considerably less developed. In C. melanonotus the vertical is still longer than in C. lineatus, the sides of that shield behind the lateral angles converging much less rapidly, and the occipitals are much smaller, each being barely half the size of the vertical. The coloration, too, is quite different, the back being uniformly dark brown. In C. maculatus, the only other species known, the vertical, as in G. melanonotus, is bell-shaped instead of subtrapezoidal, and the occipitals are proportionally larger, being equal to the vertical in size; the frontals are sometimes longer than the vertical. The dorsal coloration consists of two rows of large pale spots, one on each side of the median dorsal line, the intervening space being dark brown. The different species of the genus may be thus differentiated :- A. The width between the eyes is more than the distance from the eye to the end of the snout. 1. Cylindrophis rufus. Back dark, with imperfect pale rings. 2. C. melanonotus. Back uniformly dark-coloured. B. The width between the eyes is equal to the distance from the eye to the end of the snout. 3. C. maculatus. Back with large pale spots on a dark ground. 4. C. lineatus. Back longitudinally banded. OXYCALAMUS LONGICEPS. Calamaria longiceps, Cantor, J. A. S. B. 1847, xvi. p. 910, pi. xl. fig. 1. Oxycalamus longiceps, Gunther, Rept. Brit. India, p. 199; Stoliczka, J. A. S. B. 1873, xiii. pt. 2, p. 120. Two specimens of this Snake are sent; they measure 6i and 7 inches respectively. The nasal shield is single, as noted by Cantor and Stoliczka ; but it is divided by a suture below the nostril. Ventrals 143 in one, 128 in the other, subcaudals 19 and 25 pairs. Both specimens have an imperfect pale collar a little behind the head ; and one has a light spot on the hinder part of the fifth labial, extending to the occipital shield. Similar coloration is noted by Stoliczka in a Penang specimen. SIMOTES DENNYSI, sp. nov. (Plate XXI. fig. 1.) Scales in 21 rows. General form stout and short, as in S. cochin-chinensis1 and S. catenifer2; the head broader than the neck. 1 Gunther, Rept, Brit. Ind. p. 219, pi. xx. fig. C. 3 Stoliczka, J. A. S. B. 1873, xiii. pt, 2. p. 121, pi. xi. fig. 3. |