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Show 318 MR. Ii. KREFFT ON NEW AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. [-May 13, ceous sort of structure ; and the form altogether presents very the appearance of a bug. Ventral sucker round and rather deep. Length about 3 lines, breadth about 2\ lines. Hab. ? Old collection. 5. Descriptions of new Australian Snakes. By G E R A RD KREFFT, F.L.S., CM.Z.S., Curator and Secretary of the Australian Museum at Sydney, N.S.W. CACOPHIS FORDEI. (Figs. 1 & 2.) Scales in 15 rows. Abdominal plates ? Subcaudals ? Two anal plates. Total length 13 inches, head |, tail If. Figs. 1 & 2. Cacophis fordei. Body elongate and rounded ; head rather small, not distinct from trunk, flat, regularly shielded ; vertical moderate, with a very sharp angle behind ; superciliaries much smaller, occipitals slightly larger than the vertical; rostral rather depressed, with a groove on its lower edge ; one anterior, two posterior oculars ; one large and elongate temporal shield, with two others behind, the upper one being nearly as large as the first temporal; six upper labials, the third and fourth coming into the orbit; these shields increase from the first to the last, which is the largest; the lower labials are also six in number ; the eye is small, with rounded pupil; scales hexagonal, about as broad as they are long, except the upper rows on the back, which are more elongate. The head is scarcely to be distinguished from the body, and for one-fourth of the whole length there is no increase in size; the body then gradually enlarges, being much stouter posteriorly, with a short and very distinct tail. In young and half-grown individuals these characters are not so clearlv defined ; the tail is nearly of the same size as in the adult, rather stout, but distinct from the body. The general colour is a kind of sepia-brown above, in adults much lighter anteriorly, a white or yellowish collar |