SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT OF THE SPECIES. 265 



Type: — American Museum Natural History 12,595. R. H. Beck during 

 the Brewster-Sanford Expedition, 1917. 



Distribution: — The type-locality. 



Diagnosis: — "Scales large, imbricate; dorsal scales keeled, a vertebral row 

 of small granular scales; ventral scales smooth; dorsal and ventral scales sub- 

 equal, caudal scales larger; five upper and four lower labials; uniform grayish 

 brown above, light gray below" Schmidt, loc. cit. "Ten dorsal scales equallmg 

 distance from tip of snout to middle of eye." G. K. Noble, in litt. 



Description of the type: — "Head pointed, snout as long as the distance be- 

 tween eye and ear opening; ear opening oval, small, oblique ; rostral large, with a 

 median cleft above; five upper labials ; four lower labials ; scales of head small, 

 granular, larger on the snout, gradually passing into the imbricate dorsals; 

 mental large, followed by a pair of small postmentals; dorsal scales as large as 

 the ventrals, unbricate and keeled; one or two vertebral series of small granular 

 scales; ventrals perfectly smooth; caudals transversely enlarged below on the 

 proximal half of the tail ; caudal scales about twice as large as the dorsals, smooth ; 

 ventral scales perfectly smooth. 



Uniform grayish brown above, lighter gray below; dorsal scales are nar- 

 rowly but sharply dark-edged producing a finely reticulated appearance; throat 

 faintly marbled with darker gray ; labials and sides of the head faintly spotted 

 with white; a narrow white line on the canthus rostraUs continued from the 

 posterior border of the eye, converging with its fellow on the parietal region, 

 uniting on the neck. 



Length 42 mm.; body, 22 mm.; head 6 mm. long, 3.5 mm. broad; arm, 

 6 mm.; leg, 8 mm." Schmidt, loc. cit. 



Since writing the foregoing, I have had the opportunity, thanks to Miss 

 M. C. Dickerson and Mr. K. Schmidt, to examine the type of becki. It is a half- 

 grown male with the skin badly torn. The large dorsals are not so strongly 

 keeled as in scaber, copei, or anthracinus. The head is very narrow, long and 

 depressed, as much so or perhaps even more than in oxyrrhimis. The internasals 

 are separated by a single large scale which is let into a shallow reentrant in the 

 posterior face of the rostral. The large, rather feebly keeled dorsals arise gradu- 

 ally on the scapular region; the condition is most like that seen in scaber with 

 which species becki seems most closely connected. The scales of chest and belly 

 are all perfectly smooth. 



