A closely allied species, which has been confounded with _C. modesta_, _C. collaris_ (Ménétriès), and which also inhabits the Caucasus without having been recorded from the northern slope, is distinguished by having the scales in fifteen rows (very rarely seventeen), and the posterior chin-shields in contact with each other. _Habits._--Nothing is known as regards this species, but the North American members of the genus _Contia_ are chiefly insectivorous and oviparous. GENUS COELOPELTIS, WAGLER Maxillary teeth small and subequal, followed after a short interspace by one or two very large grooved fangs situated below the posterior border of the eye; anterior mandibular teeth strongly enlarged. Head not very distinct from neck, with angular canthus rostralis and projecting supraocular; eye large, with round pupil; nostril a crescentic slit in a single or divided nasal. Body elongate; scales smooth, more or less distinctly grooved longitudinally in the adult, with apical pits. Tail moderately long. The range of this genus, which comprises only two species, extends over Southern Europe, South-Western Asia, and North Africa. 17. COELOPELTIS MONSPESSULANA, Hermann (_Natrix lacertina_, Wagler; _Coluber insignitus_, I. Geoffroy) The Montpellier Snake _Form._--Slender; head elongate, narrow, concave above on the snout and between the eyes; snout projecting, rounded, with raised canthus and concave loreal region. Tail about one-fifth to one-fourth of the total length. _PLATE XI_ [Illustration: COELOPELTIS MONSPESSULANA _After Sordelli_] [Illustration: MACROPROTODON CUCULLATUS] [Illustration: TARBOPHIS IBERUS _After Sordelli_] [Illustration: TARBOPHIS FALLAX] _Head-Shields._--Rostral nearly as deep as broad, just visible from above. Internasals much shorter than the prefrontals. Frontal very narrow, twice to twice and a half as long as broad, its width in the middle not more than half that of the supraocular, widening in front and extending beyond the supraoculars to join the preoculars, longer than its distance from the end of snout, as long as or a little longer than the parietals. Two loreals. One preocular, the upper portion of which is much enlarged, and encroaches upon the area occupied in other snakes by the prefrontal and the supraocular; two (rarely three) postoculars. Temporals 2 + 3 or 4. Upper labials eight (rarely nine), fourth and fifth (or fifth and sixth) entering the eye. Four or five lower labials in contact with the anterior chin-shields, which are as long as or shorter than the posterior. _Scales_ with single apical pits, in seventeen or nineteen rows, longitudinally grooved in the adult, less distinctly in the young. Ventral shields 160 to 189; anal divided; subcaudals 68 to 102. [Illustration: FIG. 30]