NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 333 



latter, more numerous along the middle third, but offering no indication of a 

 narrow black line as in E. Hammondii. On the first three rows some 

 scattered scales have black spots on their bases and edges. Head above dark 

 olive ; upper labials light olive with vertical black edgings. 



A young specimen is entirely black ; the dorsal stripe obsolete, being indi- 

 cated only by a faint line on a single row of scales ; the lateral stripes very 

 indistinct ; the first and part of the second row of scales entirely black. A 

 whitish line along each side of the abdomen formed by a white spot at the 

 end of each scute. These are also margined posteriorly with the same color. 

 Throat whitish. 



The remarkable elongation of the snout will distinguish this species from 

 any others at present known, excepting E. leptocephala and Ham- 

 mondii, from which it differs in other respects. The snout is more elon- 

 gated, and decidedly more pointed than in either ; the head is not at all de- 

 pressed anteriorly asinB. leptocephala, and the eye is strikingly larger. 

 The colors of the back and abdomen are darker, and the rows of scales are 

 twenty-one, not nineteen. As compared with E. Hammondii, which it 

 most nearly resembles, beside the difference in the form of the snout, the head 

 is depressed posteriorly (not anteriorly); hence the crown is quite plane 

 throughout, while in E. Hammondii the crown is somewhat arched, 

 this form being more observable upon the occipital and frontal (vertical) re- 

 gion. In angustirostris the general form is stouter, while the head is 

 longer, and hence a greater elongation of the vertical and frontal plates. The 

 scales of the upper rows are also larger and more elongated, and more strongly 

 carinate. The tail is shorter, being considerably less than one-fourth the to- 

 tal length, while in Hammondii it is fully or more than one-fourth. This 

 member is also very slender, the body tapering abruptly near the anus in the 

 former species. The dorsal stripe, though narrow, is not wanting, and the 

 abdomen is much darker, being ashy olive with heavy black blotches through- 

 out instead of light yellow or greyish olive, and there is no indication of the 

 central line. The young black specimen is strikingly different from the young 

 ofE. Hammondii. 



Parras, Coahuila, Mexico. Lieut. Couch. 



E. cyrtopsis Kennicott. 



Spec. char. Form very slender, but little stouter than that of E. s a u r i t a, 

 but with shorter tail, one-fourth the total length. Head large. Eye very 

 large. Superior labials eight, sixth and seventh largest. Three postorbitals, 

 upper much the largest. Scales in nineteen rows. Color above olive brown, 

 with two alternating series of elongated spots between the stripes, giving the 

 appearance of a zigzag line. Dorsal stripe whitish, narrow, distinct to the 

 tip of the tail. Lateral stripe on the second and third rows, of the same color, 

 broad, distinct from head to anus. A series of black spots on the first dorsal 

 row : abdomen uniform greenish white. Orbitals whitish ; occipital spots 

 obsolete. 



Descr. This species somewhat resembles E. Marciana in the pattern of 

 coloration, which, however, has the lateral stripe upon the third row only, 

 instead of the third and second. The difference in form is most striking, the 

 body being almost as slender as in E. s a u r i t a . The scales are rather larger 

 than in E. Marciana, and those of the first row more elongated. The ground 

 color above the lateral stripe is olive brown ; the first dorsal row is whitish 

 olive or greenish white. The abdomen is uniform greenish white, except a 

 small black marginal spot near the extremity of each abdominal scute. The 

 whitish dorsal row occupies one, and less than two half rows of scales, and is 

 encroached upon by the black dorsal blotches which sometimes reach the 

 central row. The lateral stripe is also encroached upon by the spots above 

 and below it, though never entirely interrupted by them near the head as in 

 E. Marciana. The head is dark olive above; labials margined vertically 



1860.1 



