.G OLU BEV CANUS. (var,A.)
; (Eeptilia.—^Tla,te.l5.)
COLUBER CANUS.—Auct.
Reptilia.—P lates XIV. XV. XVI. and XVII.
A d u l t .— P la te XIV.
C. suprA livide nigro-bninneus, subtus pallide nigro-purpureus i apioibus gquamarum versus scutas abdominales
nigro-brunneis; scutarum abdominaliummargmibus posterioribuspallidioribus; ooulis biunneis.
L o n g it u d o addlti, 5 ped. 10 unc. ad 7 ped.
Ammobatks afbioanus ex Guinea, Seha, Thes. tom. ii. p. 82, .fig. 2.
, .Co l u b e r A m m o b a t e s e x G u in e a , Shaw, General Zoology, vol. ill. part ii. p. 481.
C o l u b e r C a n u s , M&rr. Beitr. vol. iii. p. 15, pi. i.
1 ' ...... *____— Schlegel, Essai sur la Physionomie des Serpens, p. 155, pi. 6, fig. 7 &"8.
Colour._Above deep livid blackish brown; below pale livid blackish purple,
with two or more of the rows of scales on each side of abdominal plates
of the latter tint, except their tips, which are of the colour of the back;
the hinder edge of each abdominal plate, and of each subcaudal scale is lighter
than the parts in front of it, semi-pellucid, and has a pearly lustre. Eyes dark
liver-brown. These are the markings and colours most frequently observed
in adult specimens, but many individuals occur in which the colour of the
upper parts is of a lighter shade than the one described, and others in which
it is much darker, being actually a livid black, with a shining gloss. The
gloss is observed to prevail in a greater or less degree in every specimen.
Variety A.—P late XV.
Colour.—The head, back, and sides greenish brown, variegated with
blackish brown spots, disposed in three or four longitudinal rows, one along
each side, the other two, whether connected or separate nearly in the course
of the centre of the back. When they are united so as to appear one
irregular row, the points of junction are the inner (mesial) and anterior angle
of a spot of one side, and the inner (mesial) and posterior angle of one of the
other side, hence exhibiting a tessellated appearance or a likeness, in arrangement,
to two rows of dark squares on a chess-board : the spots are either of
a uniform colour throughout, or they are varied with small marks or serrated
lines of a white or yellowish white colour. The lower parts of the sides and
the under parts intermediate between a straw and wine-yellow ; the abdominal
plates, particularly those at a distance from the head, blotched, or