30 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Jan.,. 



Of the Key West specimens there is one (M. C. Z. 2,444) worthy 

 of special note. Cope^ says in speaking of .V. c. compsolcema: 



"The only known specimen of this subspecies was found at Key 

 West, Florida, and is preserved in the Aluseum of Comparative 

 Zoology, Cambridge, Mass." 



The specimen to which Cope refers cannot now be found in the 

 museum. The only example which might be mistaken for it is 

 No. 2,444. But this specimen came with another (M. C. Z. 2,446) 

 of the same species, which also seems to have disappeared. Both 

 were said to have been collected in the Florida Keys and probably 

 at Key West by L. F. de Pourtales. They were given by him to the 

 museum and were entered in the register by S. Garman in 1874. 



That No. 2,444 cannot possibly have served Cope as the type of 

 his N. c. compsolcema is shown by several noteworthy discrepancies. 

 The tail and body lengths of the specimen (No. 2,444) are each some 

 hundred millimeters longer than was Cope's type, and the dorsal 

 rows are 21 as against the 19 given by Cope. Furthermore, the 

 head shield characters of the two specimens are not the same. 



Cope's type was probably not returned by him to the museum, 

 and wide inquiry elsewhere has failed to locate it. Unfortunately, 

 this is not the only specimen which suffered this fate. 



The Described Forms. 



Cope^ sums up the characters of the several races in respect to 

 color as follows: 



"N. c. compressicauda (Kennicott) : numerous dark cross bands, 

 which are resolved into three rows of spots just anterior to the tail, 

 and four longitudinal stripes on the neck. 



"N. c. tceniata Cope:^ four series of longitudinal spots above, those 

 of the median pair forming two longitudinal stripes on the greater 

 part of the length; the laterals forming stripes on the neck only. 



"iV. c. walkeri (Yarrow):^ yellowish with narrow brown bands, no 

 postocular l^and. 



'W. c. obscura Lonnberg:^ sooty above with transverse bands an- 

 teriorly. 



"iV. c. compsolcema (Cope):^ above blackish brown with numerous 

 closely placed cross bands." 



'^Annual Report of U. S. National Museum, 1898 (1902), p. 984. 



3 The Annual Report of U. S. National Museum, 1899 (1902j, p. 979. 



^Amer. Natl, 1895, p. 676. 



^Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 6, 1883, p. 154. 



^Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 17, 1894, p. 330. 



' Pwc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1860, p. 368. 



