extremities. Subcaudal scales 136 pairs. Skin of body, towards head, loose, forming a fold on each
side of the neck and anterior portion of the body. Ground colour of the upper surface of the head, the
back, the sides, and the upper and lateral parts of the tail intermediate between lavender-purple and
yellowish grey; the head tinted with green. The top of the head is freely freckled with small liver-
brown spots and narrow liver-brown lines; the body, sides, and tail with short lines of the same colour,
which form partial bands, or separate spots or stripes. Besides these variegations, the scales are
speckled profusely with minute liver-brown dots. Lips, and under surface of lower jaw straw-yellow;
abdomen and under part of tail pale cream-yellow, shaded with pale yellowish brown, and freely
freckled with small, liver-brown dots. Length from nose to base of tail, 23£ inches; length of tail 13|
inches; circumference, at thickest part of body, 1£ inch.
Inhabits Kaffirland and the country towards Port Natal.
DASYPELTIS SCABER, Wagler, Syst. der Amphib. page 178, 1830. Coluber scaber, Linn. Mus.
Ad. Fr. i. page 36, tom. x. fig. 1. Tropidonotus scaber, Schleg. Physionomie des Serpens,
page 328. Anodon typus, Smithy Zoological Journal, vol. iv. page 463,1829. Eyervreter of the
Cape Colonists.
Inhabits the more southern parts of Africa, and consumes with avidity the eggs'of birds.
DIPSAS INORNATUS, n. s.
Head rather large, subrhomboidal, and considerably broader than the neck; temples prominent;
nose broad and rounded; sides of head before eyes oblique. Body much compressed; back sub-
carinated; abdomen rather full and arched. Tail short, tapered, and pointed, above convex, below
flat. Nostrils lateral, situated between nasal and freno-nasal plates, the former is square, the latter
narrow and semicircular. Rostral plate rather small and inferiorly arched; naso-rostral plates rather
smaller than the fronto-nasal plates; frontal plate five-sided, truncated anteriorly, pointed behind.
Frenal plate square, the inferio-posterior angle prolonged; preocular plate narrow; postocular plates
two, the uppermost the longest. Plates of upper jaw, exclusive of rostral, eight, of lower jaw?
exclusive of mental plate, ten, the last two very small; mental plate small; the first pair of labial
plates contiguous behind the mental; submental plates four on each side, the first pair large and subrhomboidal,
the other three pairs quadrangular and longest transversely ; the first abdominal plate in
contact with the last pair. Scales of each side of the body arranged in oblique rows, slightly convex,
the convexity forwards. The rows of one side are connected on the middle, of the back with those of
the other by the scales of the vertebral row, which are larger than those of the sides, rather differently
shaped, and distinctly six-sided, the anterior and posterior sides short. The other scales are also six-
sided, the anterio-inferior and the superio-posterior : sides very short. The inner edge of each scale
overlaps slightly the outer edge of the plate nearer to the vertebral line; abdominal plates subangular
towards their extremities. Eyes rather large; pupils vertically ovate. Posterior, maxillary teeth
longest. The colour of the upper and lateral parts of the head, the back, the sides, and the upper and
lateral parts of the tail, intermediate between orange coloured brown and clove-brown ;. the posterior
portion of the upper lip, and the under part of the head, body, and tail, intermediate between straw
and cream-yellow. Eyes blackish grey, with a metallic lustre. Abdominal plates, 148; subcaudal
scales, 31 pairs; the apex of the tail a scaly spine. Length from nose to base of tail, 19 inches;' of
tail, 21 inches*.
Inhabits the country (Kaffirland) to the eastward of the Cape Colony:
ELAPS HYGEAE, Merr. Beitr. 1, S. 24, t. vi. Coluber iphysia, Daud. Rept. tom. vi. page
417. Elaps Hygeae, Schleg. Essai sur la Physionomie des Serpens, part descript, page 446.
Kouseband of the Cape Colonists.
Individuals of this species are found in all parts of Southern Africa.
ELAPS DORSALIS, n. s.
Head quadrangular, scarcely if at all wider than the neck; nose rounded. Body slender, sub-
cylindrical, and of equal thickness, being rather more than a line in diameter. Tail cylindrical,
rather more slender than the body, and tapered towards the apex, which is formed of a homy spine.
Nostril situated in the anterior part of the nasal plate. Scales of body rhomboidal, or slightly six-
sided. First pair of submental plates truncated behind, second pair truncated in front, pointed behind;
the inner sides oblique. The upper and lateral parts of the head, body, and tail, deep liver-brown,
with a narrow reddish yellow line along the back from the nose to the apex of the tail; under parts
intermediate between sienna-yellow and cream-yellow. Rows of scales on the body 15; abdominal
plates 219. Subcaudal scales 28 pairs. Length from nose to base of tail, 9£ inches; length of tail,
1 inch 1 line.
Inhabits Kaffirland, and the country towards Port Natal.
This is distinct from Elaps JEEygece, butvery closely allied to it. The latter presents many
varieties, but I have never found one of them so long and so slender, nor one which had the first pair
of submental plates truncated posteriorly. In all the species of Elaps Hygece which. I have examined,
the plates mentioned were pointed behind, and prolonged considerably beyond the anterior edge of the
second pair.
ASPIDELAPS LUBRICUS, Fitzinger, Elaps lubricus, Merr. Beitr. i. S. 9, t. ii. Col.
latonia, Daud. Rept. tom. vii. page 156. Naja lubrica, Schleg. Essai sur la Physionomie des
Serpens, part descript, page 482. Nacht Slang of the Cape Colonists.
Inhabits Southern Africa, more particularly towards Cape Town. It moves about principally
in the evening, or during the night, hence the Colonists call it Night Snake.
SEPEDON RHOMBEATUS, Licht. Berl. Dubl. Verz. 1823, Sp. 106. Vipera V. Nigrum, Om. Reg.
Animal, tom. ii. p. 86. Naja rhombeata, Schleg. Physionomie des Serpens, part descript, p. 483.
This species is widely distributed over Africa. Individuals are frequently found in the Cape
Colony, and I have seen others from the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia.
ECHIDNA ARIETANS, Merr. Beitr. iii. p. 121. Vipera Inflata, Dwrchell, Travels in South
Africa, vol. 1, p. 469. Vipera Brachyura, Guv. Reg. Animal, tom. ii. page 90. Vipera
Arietans, Schleg. Physionomie des Serpens, part descript, page 577. Poff Adder of the Cape
Colonists.
Individuals of this species have been observed in all the districts of Southern Africa which have
been visited by Europeans. I have also seen specimens which were obtained on the Gold Coast, and
others which were found to the northward of Sierra Leone.
Gr