136 



STOKERIA. 



alternating with the first. A third series opposite to the first and 

 alternating with the 2d, is seen along the 2d row, and there are even 

 traces of a fourth between the abdominal and first dorsal series. Of 

 these only the first-mentioned series is visible under ordinary circum- 

 stances, and is generally only to be made out on separating the scales, 

 the color only occasionally being shown on their margins. The first 

 pair of dots just behind and across the angle of the jaw is enlarged 

 into a crescentic patch, concave before. A second narrow vertical 

 patch of black across the sides of the head, anterior to a point'half- 

 way between the first and the eye ; this sometimes interrupted in the 

 middle. The posterior margins of the 3d and 4th (sometimes the 

 2d) labials black, showing two vertical lines below the orbit. Plates 

 on top of head mottled chestnut-brown. 



Color beneath grayish white, with one or two black specks near 

 the exterior edge of each scale. Tail unicolor. 



In some specimens the brown of the sides increases in depth to the 

 dorsal stripe. In some, too, a transverse bar connects the lateral 

 spots across the back. 



In a very young specimen from Grosse lie, the colors are dark 

 chestnut above, with the interval between the occipital patches and 

 the cephalic plates and orbit white, crossed by a vertical black line 

 on the angle of the mouth. Length 42 inches. 



