OCR Text |
Show 866 QN AN ELAPOID SNARE. [Dec. 3, I have much pleasure in bringing it before the notice of the Society. There can be no doubt the genus is valid, and perhaps more nearly allied to the Australian forms associated under Hoplocephalus and Diemenia than to any of the African genera. Among the latter, it comes nearest to Elapsoidea, which differs in having slightly oblique scales and a very short tail. It differs from Naia in the disposition of the scales, which are not oblique, and in the further extension forwards of the palatine bones ; from Walterinnesia in the latter character, and in the position of the nostril, which is not bordered by the internasal shield. The genus and species may be defined as follows :- BOULENGERINA. Dollo, Bull. M u s . Belg. iv. 1886, p. 159. Maxillary bone extending forwards as far as the palatine, with a pair of large grooved fangs, followed by three or four small solid teeth; mandibular teeth, anterior longest. Head not distinct from neck ; eye small, with round pupil; nostril between two nasals; no loreal. Body cylindrical; scales smooth, without pits, in 21 rows; ventrals rounded. Tail moderate ; subcaudals in two rows. BOULENGERINA STORMSI. (Plate XLVIII.) Dollo, 7. c. Head scarcely depressed ; snout rounded, not prominent, without canthus; eye scarcely longer than its distance from the mouth. Eostral nearly as deep as broad, the portion visible from above measuring half its distance from the frontal; internasals shorter and a little broader than the prefrontals, extensively in contact with the praeocular ; frontal small, slightly longer than broad, as broad as the supraocular, as long as its distance from the rostral, slightly more than half the length of the parietals; posterior nasal in contact with the single praeocular; two postoculars ; temporals 1 + 2; seven upper labials, third and fourth entering the eye, fourth, fifth, and sixth in contact with the lower postocular, third and sixth deepest ; four lower labials in contact with the anterior chin-shields, which are much longer than the posterior. Scales not oblique, in 21 rows. Ventrals 193 ; anal entire; subcaudals 67. Brown above ; four black cross-ba^s on the nape and neck, the second and third forming complete rings, followed by five irregular black spots ; further back, the body darker brown with the scales black-edged ; tail black ; belly white anteriorly, brown further back, with the shields black-edged, blackish brown towards the tail. The specimen measures 240 millim., in which the tail enters for 85. It is young, as indicated by the umbilical fissure; tbe species therefore reaches a size at least equal to that of the Indian Cobra. |