drangular, the outer side of each longer than the inner; fronto-nasal plates
five-sided, the outer extremity of each two-sided ; frontal plate six-sided, the
two sides, which form the anterior margin of the plate, nearly in a straight
line, the two hindermost sides converge and join each other at an acute angle;
occipital plates six-sided ; palpebral plates small, narrow, and quadrangular;
temporal plates two, large, the anterio-inferior one five-sided, its lower portion
situated between the fourth and fifth labial plates, the upper and posterior
plate oblong and quadrangular. Nasal plates small, oblong, and quadrangular
; naso-frenal plate five-sided ; preocular plate small, subovate, or
slightly five-sided ; post-ocular plate small. The plates of the upper lip,
exclusive of rostral, five ; the first very small, the three following quadrangular,
the third and fourth, measured vertically, of considerable length,
the one extends to the preocular plate, the other to the eye, the fifth or last
plate is oblong, five-sided, and placed obliquely at the angle of the mouth.
The labial plates of the lower jaw, exclusive of the mental plate, three; the
first and second very small, the third long, narrow, and widest behind. The
mental plate is triangular and very small; the submental plates, which
consist of one pair, are somewhat four-sided, the hinder side of each oblique,
the anterior side slightly arched ; anterior to these plates, between them and
the mental plate, the first narrow labial plate of each side extends inwards
and joins its fellow of the opposite side. The fangs, the only teeth in the
upper jaw, are generally two on each side, equally developed, both very long,
rather slender, and when recumbent reach almost if not quite to the angle of
the mouth; the palatal and mandibulary teeth are very small. The poison
bag is long, narrow, and broadest about midways between its extremities
(fig . d—a), its tube is short; the muscular structures which compress the sac
to expel the poisonous fluid are abundant, powerful, and effective. The scales
of the body are scarcely imbricate, they are disposed in oblique transverse
rows, the number in each row, at the middle of the body, twenty; the
four on each side, nearest the abdominal plates, are much broader than
the dorsal ones, the former are distinctly six-sided, the latter almost rhom-
boidal, at least the anterior and posterior sides are very short. Caudal
scales in shape somewhat like the lateral scales of the body, and are distinctly
six-sided. Abdominal and subcaudal plates narrow and convex, and
in one specimen were 255 = 20 and in another 225 =: 21.
The specimen described measured from nose to anus 22 inches, and from
anus to point of tail lj inch; another specimen 17 inches to anus, from
thence to apex of tail 1 inch.
This snake inhabits the eastern districts of the Cape Colony. Of its habits I am not able to
speak, having never seen it alive, or met a person who h ad : that it burrows in loose ground,
I infer from the general form of the head, but more especially from the circumstance that the
upper jaw is considerably longer than the lower, and that it receives and lodges the latter
between its limbs, When I first obtained a specimen, I considered I had acquired a new
form of Tortricidce, and I continued to view it as such till I had leisure to examine it more
minutely, when I discovered that its place was in a very different section of snakes. The
length of the fangs, as compared with the head, is remarkable, and I question if the reptile
is able to raise them so much as to enable it in the act of biting to inflict a wound. To
it they will be chiefly important as efficient means of preventing the return from the
gullet of any living object it may have partially swallowed, as nothing which has once
passed their points, which extend to the commencement of the gullet, will be able, unless
the reptile wills it, to repass without being necessarily wounded, and, if alive, its death
immediately occasioned. Without some such provision one can scarcely understand how
an animal with so small a head and so delicate a lower jaw, quite unequal to destroy by
force, can succeed in securing the food essential to its existence.
No one who knew the late Mr. Bibron as I did, will be surprised that I seek to
associate his name with this new and highly interesting form—a form I never look on
without recollecting the delight he experienced when I first showed it to him at Chatham,
many years ago. All honest admirers of the science he so successfully cultivated must, 1
think, feel how greatly they are losers by his premature death; and I cannot imagine any
Herpetologist will neglect an opportunity of rendering homage to his memory.