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Show 370 MR. G. KREFFT ON NEW AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. [June 26, has already shown, the locality heretofore assigned to it is quite incorrect ; and secondly, that in comparing m y bird with Chauna derbiana I had only the figure (Gray & Mitchell, Genera of Birds, pi. 161) to go by, no description ever having been published of this species, and that the figure is much too darkly coloured, particularly on the lower parts. It follows, therefore, that there are only two known species of this curious form :- 1. C. chavaria of South-eastern Brazil and Paraguay. 2. C. derbiana (=C. nigricollis) of the northern littoral of New Granada. 3. Descriptions of Three Species of Snakes of the Genus Hoplocephalus. By G E R A R D K R E F F T , Curator and Secretary of the Australian Museum, Sydney, N.S.W., C.M.Z.S. 1. HOPLOCEPHALUS ATER, sp. nov. Scales in 17 rows. Anal entire. Subcaudals 47. Ventrals 162. Coloration.-Black ; chin-shields whitish on outer margin; beneath bluish black, clouded with a somewhat lighter tint on the posterior part. Head scarcely distinct from trunk, high, quadrangular, obtuse in front; anterior frontals as large again as the posterior ones, vertical five-sided, just as long as broad ; occipitals very large, widely forked; six upper labials, fifth largest, leaving but one narrow temporal shield above it; there are two more temporals behind this one, of which the upper one is the largest. The occipitals do not come into contact with more than three scales on each side; whilst one scale is wedged in between the fork, making seven scales in all. There are seven lower labials, one nasal, one anterior, and two postoculars; the pupil is rounded. Hab. Flinder's Range, South Australia. Discovered by Mr. George Masters, who found but one specimen. 2. HOPLOCEPHALUS MASTERSTI, sp. nov. Scales in 15 rows. Ventrals 136. Subcaudals 40, or more. Head triangular, distinct from trunk, and pointed in front; vertical three times as long as broad ; all the scales of the head much elongate ; six upper and seven lower labials, one anterior, two post-oculars, the first (anterior one) grooved. Coloration.-Dark olive-green above and below, with the exception of a yellowish-white elongate patch in the middle of each ventral scale; all the scales very finely striated or keeled (which is not observable to the naked eye), and more or less finely black-dotted. Head darker than the body, a whitish band crossing the nape, a |
