22 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4th Ser. 



labials usually eight, often nine. Infralabials usually 13, often 

 12, sometimes 11 or 14. Temporals of first row varying from 

 two to five, usually four. Genials in two pairs, anterior larger. 

 Scales on body in 27 to 33 rows, usually 29, keeled except in a 

 varying number of rows on each side. Anal plate not divided. 

 Gastrosteges varying in number from 223 to 241, males having 

 from 227 to 241, females from 223 to 240. Urosteges in two 

 series of from 55 to 71, males having from 58 to 71, females 

 from 55 to 62. 



The ground color is pale brownish or grayish-yellow, some- 

 times more or less obscured by the spreading of the blotches 

 or the presence of black or dark browh marks along the keels 

 of its scales. Along the middle of the back, from the head to a 

 point over the anus, is a series of from 50 to 68 (average 58) 

 dark blotches. These blotches are brown on the central part of 

 the body but are black anteriorly and posteriorly. On the 

 upper surface of the tail are from fourteen to twenty (aver- 

 age 16.5) blackish blotches. On the anterior portion of 

 the body the blotches are more or less rounded, but posteriorly 

 they tend to become quadrate. There are several series of 

 alternating, often more or less confluent, dark blotclies or spots 

 on the sides. Across the top of the head, between the preocular 

 plates, is a moderately narrow brown band, very definite and 

 well-defined. There are similar bands or spots below the cen- 

 ter of the eye and running back and down from the upper post- 

 ocular plate. The top of the head posteriorly has a few, small, 

 scattered, dark spots. The spaces between the dark dorsal 

 blotches on the posterior portion of the body are yellow or 

 orange-yellow, usually somewhat obscured by dark brown 

 streaks along the keels of the scales. The lower surfaces are 

 yellow or yellowish-white with irregular spots or blotches of 

 dark brown or black on the gastrosteges and urosteges. There 

 is no definite median subcaudal black band. 



Variation. — Twenty-nine specimens from Utah show the 

 following variations : The loreals are 1-1 in all. The preocu- 

 lars are 1-1 in twenty-one, or 87% ; and 2-2 in three, or 13% 



