838 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



rates this first red ring from a black one eight scales in width. Behind this 

 are alternate immaculate black and red rings, seven or eight scales wide, 

 and separated by white rings three to three and a half scales in width. There 

 are eleven black and eleven red rings on the body separated by twice as many 

 white ones. The tail is ringed with black and white without any red. All 

 the rings run entirely around the body of the same color, and are wholly 

 without spots, above and below. The plates of the head and peculiar style of 

 coloration in this strongly marked species cannot be mistaken. The three 

 colors, each immaculate, glossy, and clear, form a striking contrast, and the 

 red is probably bright carmine in life, thus affording the most beautiful color- 

 ation possessed by any North American snake. 



Elaps distans Kennicott. 



Spec. char. Body slender, with very narrow black rings, four or five scales 

 in width, separated by intervals, three or four times as wide, of brownish or 

 reddish, entirely unspotted. No light rings separating the red and black ones. 

 Under lip and jaw wholly without black, and the tip of nose light. 



Descr. Body very slender ; tail long for the genus. Dorsal scales small. Plates 

 of the head generally larger than inE. euryxanthus; rostral broad and not 

 as high as in E. euryxanthus. Anterior frontals rather small, and slightly 

 elongated laterally ; postfrontals large, pentagonal, as broad as long. Supercili- 

 aries quadrangular, elongated, narrow. "Vertical, pentagonal, rather large, but 

 narrow, the pointed posterior extremity inserted between the occipitals, as in E. 

 ful vius . 



The ground color of the body in the alcoholic specimen is reddish brown, 

 probably brighter red in life, with twelve very narrow black rings from head 

 to anus. At the edges of the black rings the reddish color becomes indis- 

 tinctly lighter for half a scale, but there is no well defined light ring border- 

 ing the black as in the other species. On the tail are five broad black bands 

 separated by narrow light rings. The anterior part of the head back to the 

 middle of the occipitals and the upper jaw to the fourth labial is black, but 

 this color does not extend on the lower jaw at all, and the lower edge of the 

 rostral and upper labials is light. On the posterior part of the head is the 

 usual light ring, but situated farther back than in E. f a 1 v i u s , its anterior 

 border passing across the middle of the occipitals a little behind the vertical 

 and thence down and forward to the fourth labial, expanding below upon the 

 whole of the lower jaw. On the neck behind this light ring is a black one, 

 about five or six scales in width, which does not run entirely around the body, 

 being interrupted for a short distance on the abdomen. Behind this, the 

 black annulations are perfect, each four or five scales in width, and separated 

 by intervals of fifteen to twenty scales of the ground color. The black annula- 

 tions are broader on the vertebral region than laterally and beneath where 

 they cover three or four dorsal scales, and the same number of abdominal 

 scutellse. The black rings on the tail are about eight scales wide, and sepa- 

 rated by light intervals of only two or three scales. 



The narrow black rings, separated by very wide intervals, will at once 

 distinguish this species from any of the others here described. There are also 

 no blotches or dots of black on the red intervals, and, if the colors of the speci- 

 men described have not been much altered by soaking, the absence of distinct 

 light rings of a third color between the black and red ones will form a striking 

 character. The color of the light occipital ring and of the light rings on the 

 tail is probably yellow or white in life. The mutilated condition of the head 

 prevents an accurate description of its outline, but it is apparently small and 

 narrow as in E. t e n e r . 



1144. Batosegachie, Chihuahua. John Potts. 216, 48, 12, 22, 3. 



[A 



ug. 



