194 THE HERPETOLOGY OF CUBA. 



one do so during midday, although we have found many specimens under rocks 

 by day, which we would surely have seen long before had they come forth to 

 breathe. By night they move about slowly in the water or lie in wait for their 

 prey, usually cyprinodonts, called in Cuba Guajacones, and then with the aid 

 of a Hght they may easily be collected. The natives in general have no fear of 

 this snake, and they have frequently told us that they have often felt them 

 swim against their legs while fording a river at night. Nothing whatever is 

 known of their breeding habits. With a single exception they have not been 

 observed on land for even a short time. In April 1917 Mr. W. S. Brooks while 

 digging in a cave in the Sierra de Casas, Island of Pines, caught a very small 

 and young specimen; it was about eight inches long and more pallid in colour 

 than an adult. The cave was half a mile or more from the nearest small 

 stream and possibly had been resorted to for oviposition. Specimens a meter 

 in length are decidedly larger than the average. 



The species is very widespread and fairly abundant in the rivers and streams 

 about Guane, especially the Rio Cuyaguateje, in the streams about Pinar del 

 Rio and San Diego de los Banos, in the Lake and Rio Ariguanabo at San An- 

 tonio de los Banos, in the streams about Cienfuegos, in the Rio Tana at Man- 

 zanillo, and in the waters near Guantanamo. The species is the only one of the 

 genus which occurs in the Antilles, although there are several species on the 

 mainland occurring from Upper Central America to Ecuador. 



61. Also PHIS angulifer (Bibron). 



Plate 15, fig. 7. 



Juho; Culebra. 



Diagnosis: — A large, active terrestrial snake, usually slate coloured with 

 black spots. The black spots scattered and usually confined to a single scale. 



Description: — Adult M. C. Z. 2,195. Cuba (a cotype Mus. Hist. Nat. 

 Paris) . 



Rostral much broader than high, barely visible from above; internasal 

 suture about equal to the prefrontal suture; frontal broader anteriorly, nar- 

 rower posteriorly than the supraoculars, a little longer than its distance from 

 the tip of the snout, shorter than parietal suture; nostril large, between two 

 large nasals; loreal medium, shghtly longer than high; one preocular, not in 

 contact with frontal; two postoculars, about equal in size; temporals one 

 plus two; eight supralabials, third, fourth, and fifth in contact with eye; fifth 



