NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 305 



Specimen with the small spots (sixty-six dorsal usually divided) of the 

 variety described as above as a species. 



Ophibolus b o y 1 i i Baird and Girard, Serpents 82. 



Specimen with loreal minute on one side, wanting on the other. As tbe 

 practice of employing generic names which have not been explained by a di- 

 agnosis is a very questionable one, and only to be allowed in case of neces- 

 sity, I employ in this and other cases Baird and Girard's names in prefer- 

 ence to the prior ones of Fitzinger ; e. g. the above, in place of Lampropeltis, 



Ophibolus p y r o m e 1 a n u s m. sp. nov. 



Char. Scales in 23 longitudinal rows ; tail five and one-half times in total 

 length. Scuta 224, 1, 66. Fifty to fifty-eight black annuli on an ochraceous 

 white ground, on the body ; each anteriorly completely, posteriorly more or 

 less incompletely split by a Vermillion annulus ; all extending with irregu- 

 larities on the belly. 



Descr. Head quite distinct from body, muzzle contracted. Frontal plate 

 broad, with prolonged apex ; parietals elongate, emarginate behind ; cephalic 

 shields otherwise asinpolyzonus, splendid us, etc. Postgeneials half 

 the Length of the pregeneials. Dorsal scales rather broad, outer series not 

 abruptly enlarged. In one specimen all the black annuli to the middle of 

 the tail are divided by the red, thus leaving the black as a margin to it ; 

 hence the number of these annuli is fewer; they are four scales wide behind 

 the middle of the bo'dy ; in another specimen only four anterior rings are 

 completely divided, those on the following third of the length being divided 

 by red on the sides ; the remaining annuli black, three scales wide ; white 

 annuli one and one-half scales ; anterior or nuchal red ; annulus widest, its 

 anterior black margin attaining parietals ; an ochraceous band from gular 

 region, not quite completed across parietals. Muzzle, prefrontal plates and 

 labial margin ochraceous, remainder of top and sides of head black. Total 

 length 30-5 inches. Nos. 731 760. 



This species has a longer body than the known red-ringed species, and is 

 indeed most closely related to the 0. b o y 1 i i it will always be distinguished 

 from the latter by the much more numerous annuli (twenty-eight in b o y 1 i i.) 



Pityophis b el Ion a Bd. Girard Serpents. Stansbury's Exploration, 1852, 

 350. 

 Numerous specimens illustrate well the great variability of the shields 'of 

 this species. About half do not possess the anterior frontal (vertical,) several 

 have two loreals on one side, some have one preocular on one side, some on 

 both, (typically two ;) four postoculars occur on one side only in two speci- 

 mens, and one has the eye on one side resting on the fifth superior labial, the 

 others on the fourth. Apparently the most abundant snake in the region ex- 

 plored by Dr. Coues. 



Masticophis testaceus Say, Long's Expedition, 1823. JTerpttodryas jlavi- 

 gularis Hallowell, Pr. A. N. S., 1852. 



Masticophis taeniatus Hallowell, (Leptophis) Proc. Acad. 1852. M. schot- 

 tii B. G., Catalogue Serpents. Leptopkis lateralis Hallow., Proc. Acad. 

 1 853. 

 The young, of the form lateralis, the adult, the ta-eniatus. 



Eutaenia vagrans B. & G., Catalogue. 



Var. with top of the head black. From Zuni City, in water. Var. with 

 head brown ; like back from San Francisco Mountains. 



Eutaenia orpata B. & G., D". S. Mexic. Bound. Surv. Tab. E. parietalis B. 

 & G., Catalogue Serpents. 

 A very distinct species from the last. Superior labials seven ; postgeneials 

 considerably longer than pregeneials. Tail three and three-fifths in total 



1866.] 20 



