EL APS SUNDERWALLJI.
" fUeptilia Plate 66) ELAPS SUNDERWALLII.—Smith.
Reptilia.—P late LXVI.
E.supeme, sordide brunneo rater, infra subochreus; dorso antioe nigro-viridi-tincto; corpore caudaque
fasciis ocbreis transvereis variegati^ fasciaruin squamis brunneo rubro variegatis; capite antioe
angusto; caud& brevi, apice conicd aculeata.
Colour—Chocolate-red, the upper surface of the head and back anteriorly
tinted with blackish green. Body and tail variegated with twenty transverse
ochre-yellow bands, each about half an inch in width, and about an inch
apart; the bands are also variegated, each scale being edged with chocolate-
red. The lower jaw, the edge of the upper jaw, the temples inferiorly, and
the under parts of the body and tail sienna-yellow. In recent specimens the
bands are probably red.
F orm, &c.—Head, viewed from above, subtriangular, anteriorly narrow,
nose nearly acute; hind-head rather broader than the neck. Body moderately
slender, almost cylindrical, and nearly of the same thickness throughout;
tail cylindrical, slightly tapered, the apex conical and armed with a
short horny spine. Rostral plate large, triangular, its apex lodged in a notch
at the junction of the naso-rostral plates, the latter are narrow, the frontonasal
plates large and six sided, the outer extremity of each descending
between the freno-rostral and preocular plates, frontal plate six sided, the
two anterior sides form an obtuse, the two posterior an acute angle, palpebral
plates square behind, subangular anteriorly; occipital plate irregularly shaped,
broad anteriorly, rather narrow posteriorly, freno-nasal subtriangular, its
apex behind ; frenal wanting; preocular plate subquadrangular; postocular
plates two, the uppermost the smallest and quadrangular, the lowermost fivesided,
two of the sides behind. Plates of upper lip exclusive of rostral seven,
the anteriormost small and triangular, the others much deeper, the sixth and
seventh much the largest and cover the lower portion of the temples. Plates
of lower lip, exclusive of mental, six, the last much the longest; the mental