128 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



[Mar., 



respectively, 590 mm. and 355 mm. in length, the chief difference 

 being in the length of the tails. The longer of the two measured 

 162 mm. to vent and the smaller 127 mm., while the distances from 

 tip of rostrmn to eye and to ear in both specimens were identical. 

 The head of the longer specimen was 1| mm. broader than that of 

 the other. The two specimens agreed in scalation and in color. 

 The dorsal surface was light, rather cinnamon-brown, with three 

 very dark brown longitudinal stripes, two lateral and one dorsal, 

 the dorsal being slightly fainter than the lateral. The sides of the 

 head and of the anterior part of the body appear spotted ; the entire 

 ventral surface of body and tail uniform lemon-yellow. The dorsal 

 rows of scales, of which there are sixteen, are separated from the 

 ten ventral rows by a distinct groove. The preanal scales are 

 slightly larger than the abdominal. The dorsal scales of the body 

 are carinate and are wider than long. The color and stripes therefore 

 agree with Cope's description of variation "11. J."^^ 



64 85 



Fig. 3. — Ophisaurus ventrnlis Linn. 



The plates of the head show the interfrontonasals separated from 

 the frontal by the two prefrontals which are in contact on the median 

 line and thus agree with Cope's "I. C.,"^'^ l:)ut in addition show two 

 interfrontonasals, one anterior to the other, as in the subspecies 

 compressus (Ophisaurus ventralis compressiis Cope). These speci- 

 mens also agree with compressus in having but two rows of plates 

 between the labials and the canthal row; in having two large superior 

 labials touching the orbit below, and in having the caudal plates 

 at the extremity of the tail longer than wide — characters which are 

 given as peculiar to compressus. The coloration, however, does 

 not agree with that given for compressus, and the body does not 



>< Rep. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1898, p. 497. 

 15 Loc. cit., p. 496. 



