472 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



Rostral forming a trifle more than a right angle behind; nostril 

 between the two nasals; anterior pair of nasals moderately in contact 

 behind rostral; frontonasal longer than wide in contact with the loreal; 

 prefrontals also moderately in contact; frontal in contact with only 

 the first two supraoculars; a pair of frontoparietals separated, except 

 anteriorly, from the third supraocular by one or two rows of granules; 

 three large occipitals in a transverse row, with a pair of intercalated 

 scales between the outer pair and the frontoparietals; five and six 

 supraciliaries, the third very long; three supraoculars the first in 

 contact with the two anterior supraciliaries, separated from the loreal ; 

 two posterior supraoculars separated from the supraciliaries by a 

 single, partly double row of granules; last supraoculars separated 

 from the outer occipitals by two, partly three rows of granules; six 

 and seven supralabials; five and six large infralabials ; between 

 infralabials and chin-shields a wedge of two rows of scales, extending 

 anteriorly as far as the middle of the second chin-shield. Chin and 

 throat covered with granules, a band of larger ones extending across 

 the middle, a group of ten or a dozen very large ones in the mid-region 

 of which no one scale is much larger than another; on the area between 

 the two throat folds a single row of large scales; under side of the 

 body with eight longitudinal and twenty -eight transverse rows of 

 plates; preanal plates in a median longitudinally arranged pair and a 

 marginal transverse pair, the former larger. On the lower arm one 

 row of very large antebrachials becoming double proximally; on the 

 upper arm one row of very large brachials continuous with the ante- 

 brachials; on the posterior side a group of small postbrachials ; under 

 side of the thighs covered distally with three rows of very large plates 

 resolving proximally into six or eight rows; twenty-four and twenty- 

 five femoral pores; on the under side of the tibia two, part three rows 

 of very large shields; upper side of the wrist covered with three large 

 scales and several smaller ones ; - inner and outer toe reaching approxi- 

 mately the same point; tail covered with keeled scales, the keels 

 parallel with the longitudinal axis but the scales oblique; each whorl 

 of caudal scales raised strongly on the sides, giving the tail a peculiar 

 flattened appearance; about twenty-two scales in the fifteenth ring 

 from the base. 



Coloration: — Dorsal surface dark olive-brown, on each side, 

 covering nearly the entire surface of the flanks a series of large vertical 

 bars of black; these spots somewhat confluent, with the between 

 spaces gray instead of brown like the back; indistinct mottlings of 

 gray on the upper surfaces of the legs; ventral surface milky tinged 

 with straw-color; outer ventrals, under surfaces of the legs reticulated 

 with blue-gray. 



Variation: — A half grown male M. C. Z. 9932 is not so distinctly 

 marked as the adult, but the general pattern is the same. 



