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Show 1881.] _AND FROGS FROM SINGAPORE. 221 behind, and then intersect the dark areas, until on the posterior part of the back and tail there is a double row of brown spots. The white bands expand at the side, and, except near the head, bifurcate around a dark spot. Lower parts whitish. Head with a rather broad central dark band throughout the vertical and occipitals, and joined behind to the large brown spot on the back of the neck ; the sides of the vertical and occipitals, with the greater part of the sides of the head and neck, are pale; but there is a dark patch on each superciliary shield, another on the temporals on each side, and the greater part of the snout in front of the eyes is dark brown. Length of the specimen 13 inches, of which the tail is 3*1, or nearly one fourth. The principal characters by which this form may be distinguished from N. maculatum are:-(1) The greater length of the vertical shield: in N. maculatum the vertical is much shorter than an occipital, the latter being equal in length to the vertical and post-frontals together; in N. subannulatum the vertical and postfrontals together are much longer than an occipital. (2) Dentition, there being only one larger tooth at the back of the jaw. In N. maculatum the nasals are described as separated by an indistinct suture ; but I cannot detect with certainty a suture in the type ; and in the second specimen the nasal is certainly undivided '. I think it not impossible that the genus Ulupe, described by m e 2 in 1878 from a Tenasserim specimen, is allied to Nymphophi-dium. Ulupe has but 13 rows of scales round the body, and there is no praeocular above the elongate loreal; but in other respects the genus approaches Nymphophidium very closely. I am far from certain that I was right in assigning Ulupe to the Lycodontida?, to which, it should be remembered, Odontomus was referred by Dumeril and Bibron, although Gunther afterwards showed that the dentition differed from the Lycodont type. PTYAS MUCOSA and PT. KORROS. There are five specimens belonging to the genus Ptyas. One has 15 scales round the middle of the body, two have 16, and two 17; in the latter there are 3 loreals; all have the dorsal scales distinctly keeled on the posterior portion of the body. I refer the first three to Pt. korros, the latter two to Pt. mucosa ; but I believe all to belong to one specific form and not to deserve to be distinguished, except as varieties. Since determining the specimens, I have ascertained that the individuals referred to Pt. mucosa are from Hong- Kong. TROPIDONOTUS RHODOMELAS. Tropidonotus rhodomelas, Boie, Isis, 1827, p. 535; Schlegel, Phys. Serp. i. p. 167, ii. p. 310, pi. xii. f. 10, 11. 1 In Jan's figure of Odontomus subannulatus a suture is showu below the nostril, but not above. In the specimen examined by m e there is on one side a slight groove below the nostril, but no suture. * J. A. S. B. 1878, vol. xlvii. pt. 2, p. 128. |