OCR Text |
Show 1881.] MR. W. T. BLANFORD ON PERSIAN REPTILES. 681 gate. Rostral broader than high. Nasals longer than broad and about half as long again as the frontals. Vertical nearly pentagonal, posterior angle rather less than a right angle. Each occipital almost once and a half the length of the vertical. The third and fourth labials are below the orbit; one prseocular and one or two postoculars, there being two on one side and one on the other; two are probably normal, as the single shield is partly divided. Two a Fig. 3. b Head of Hydrophis temporalis. very large temporals along the outer margin of each occipital; the anterior temporal is higher than broad, and descends nearly or quite to the gape. Two pairs of subequal chin-shields in contact with each other. Scales slightly imbricate on neck, very slightly on body, not imbricate on upper portion behind ; except on the anterior part of the Fig. 4. Scales of Hydrophis temporalis, near the middle of the body. neck, each has behind the middle of its disk a minute tubercle. On the neck the scales are elongate, and they are longer than broad to considerably behind the middle of the body. Twenty-nine scales P R O C . Z O O L . Soc-1881, No. XLIV. 44 |