been referred to it. Its ventrals are 163 and its sub-caudals 76, and it has 25 rows of
strongly keeled scales. The scales on the upper surface of the head are small and
tubercular, the scales on the temporal region being only feebly keeled. The two
supranasals are separated from each other by two shields and by a small granule
in front of the left shield, but such an arrangement is evidence itself of variability
in this region. Two plates between the loreal and supranasals. The first labial
is confluent with the nasal. Compare with this the following characters of the
type of T. purpureus, Gray. The colour is uniform reddish-brown above, with a
tinge of purple on the side of the head and indications of a pale lateral line along
the body; the ventrals dusky, numbering 164, and the sub-caudals 61; the rows of
scales 28. The upper surface of the head is covered with rather small tubercular
scales; the scales of the body being moderately keeled. No azygos shield, but two
small shields, one behind the other, between the supranasals. In Cantor’s specimens
of T. pimiceus there is an azygos shield and the superciliaries are sometimes divided,
and there is a long subocular which are some of the characters assigned by Stoliczka
to T, mutdbilis. The first labial in the type and in T. pilniceus is united to the nasal,
as in T. mutdbilis. In the types of T. pimiceus there are, as in T. carvnatus and
as occasionally in T. mutdbilis, 3 rows of scales between the infraoculars and labials.
The coloration of T. mutdbilis is much the same as in T. pimiceus. In the type
of the former species, I have counted 25 rows of scales, so that the scales are thus
only two rows in excess of the snake from the same area described by Steindachner
as T. Idbidlis, and which agrees in other respects with T. pu/rpu/reus, from which
T. cantoris, Blyth, does not appear to be separable.
This snake was found in the forest surrounding Ponsee, at an elpvation of
3,500 feet, and it has been found on the east coast of China.
Trmeeestjb.tjs erythtjrtjs, Cantor.
Russell, Ind. Serpt., vol. ii, 1801, pi. 20,
Trigonocephahis erythv/rus, Cantor, Proc., Zool. Soc., 1889, p. 31.
Trimeresurus alboldbris, Gray, Zool. Miscell., 1842; p. 48.
Trimeresurus erythurus, Gray, Cat. Snakes, B. M., 1848, App.,p. 115; Gunther, Rept. Brit. Ind.,
1864, p. 386; Steindach., Reise Novara Rept., 1867, p. 86; Theobald, Journ. Linn. Soc., vol. x,
1868, p. 64; id., Dum., Cat. Rept. B. Ind.,pars, 1876, p. 220; Fayrer, Thanatophidia, 1872,
pi. 1 4 ; Stoliczka, journ. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xxxix, 1870, p. 217; id., op. cit., vol. xlii, 1878,
p. 115; Anderson, id., op. cit., vol. xl, p. 87.
The head in front of the angle of the mouth broad, nearly twice the breadth
of the space between the anterior angle of the eyes. Snout rather pointedly
arched. Two pairs of shields on the upper part of the snout, the anterior pair in
contact behind the rostral; A small azygos shield sometimes intercalated between
them and the rostral, but not separating them entirely from that shield. These two
pairs of shields, and the small azygos one, when it occurs, evidently result from the
breaking up of one original pair. Superciliaries elongated and not divided. The
second labial forms the front, of the facial pit. The nasal is united to the first
labial by a narrow isthmus in front of the nostril ; twenty-one rows of keeled scales.
Park gamboge-green on the back, brilliant yellow-green on the sides above the
ventrals, pale-green on the imder surface, a bright brick-red line along the upper
surface of the tail. The side of the head in adults, pale bluish-green. The ventrals
with yellow posterior margins. In a young specimen, there is a pale yellowish-green
line from the nostril, below the eye, to the neck ; but along the sides of the body it
is prolonged as a white line. A few very obscure reticulated deep-blue lines on the
sides of the face and chin in both young and old.
Total length 34 inches ; tail 5",50' ; ventrals 171' ; sub-caudals 59' ; rows of scales 21.
■S » » 19-50 4tf-:75' „ 169' „ 74' 21.
I am indebted to Professor Rolleston of Oxford for the opportunity to examine
the type of this species which is preserved in the Museum of that University,
and which he forwarded to me in London, in order that I might compare it
with the type of T. alboldbris in the British Museum and with the specimens
from Upper Burma, on which these remarks are based.
In the type, as in the latter specimens, the scales on the upper surface of the
head are moderately large, slightly imbricate, smooth on the vertex, but slightly keeled
on the temporal region and nape, and below the eye, where one row of scales intervenes
between the infraocular and the labials. The superciliary, as in the specimens
from Upper Burma, is long and narrow, but only two large shields occur
behind the rostral. That little specific importance, however, can be attached to this
character, is proved by a consideration of the various accepted species of Trimeresuri,
for in all of them these shields, when they exist, are occasionally liable to be broken
up. The first labial in the type is united to the nasal, but this is also a variable character,
for in some individuals no such union takes place. I t has also twenty-one rows of
feebly keeled scales, which is the prevalent number in the majority of the examples
of this species which have passed under my observation. The colour of the upper
parts is grass-green, paler on the sides, and that of the lower surface is greenish-
yellow. The lips are pale yellow, and there is no temporal band. The pale labial
band is well developed, and the tail is brownish and transversely reticulated with
blackish. Stoliczka was disposed to consider that the usual number of the rows of
scales round the body in the adult is 23, and that the number 21 is distinctive of
the young. His remarks, however, seem to apply only to examples of the species
from Moulmein.
Body.
Type of T. alboldbris, 18'00 inches
Tail.
153
Sub-caudals.
49
Bows of
21
1475 „ * 8-30 156 59 21
Formosa 17-40 » 4-50 155 66 21
15-75 „ 1*75 150 63 21
Hong-Kong 19-50 '■ d i '• 3-00 164 53 21
Siam 12-13 „ 1-75 159 44 21
Pachebone 24-25 „ 4-25 168 54 21
Java 28;25 „ 4-76 160 60 . 21
P India 19-25 „ 5-00 161 75 21
Moulmein (Stoliczka), 20- „ 5-00 157 63 23