ON THE ZOOLOGICAL POSITION OF TEXAS. 41 



edge of tbe same row is iuvolvecl in the superior edge of a wide band, 

 wliieli covers two rows and two half rows. Tlius there are three dark 

 bauds on each side of the middle Hue, the inferior being the widest. 

 Altogether they only cover five and a half rows of scales on each side. 

 There are also uo lateral light bands as in many species, but the color 

 of the abdomen extends to the lower dark band. Size rather small ; 

 length of head and body m. .070. The peculiar distribution of the color 

 bands distinguishes this species from the P. leptogrammus of Baird, should 

 the adult form of that species be found to have the paler colors of the 

 present one. 



Coluber bairdiYnYrow sp. nov. Dr. H. C. Yarrow sends me the follow- 

 ing description of an interesting novelty from the arid region of West- 

 ern Texas : 



Body rather compressed. Head very broad ; neck contracted. Vertical 

 plate longer than broad, with a slight notch in anterior border ; i)osterior 

 portion very large, broader than long; supercilium broadest posteriorly ; 

 anterior orbital one; postorbitals two, lower largest; nine upper labials, 

 seventh largest; lower border of orbit formed bj^ upper margins of the 

 fourth and fifth upper labials; lower labials twelve, seventh largest. 

 Dorsal rows of scales 27, long and lozenge-shaped; three upper dorsal 

 rows slightly carinated. General color above (alcoholic) warm grayish- 

 ash; beneath yellowish ; behind occipitals two converging oblong brown 

 blotches, and posterior to these a series of narrow transverse brown 

 blotches, eighty in number, becoming obsolete near caudal extremity; 

 these blotches are six scales in width. Laterally below, there is a cor- 

 responding series of irregular blotches on both sides, almost obsolete. 

 Along upper border of abdominal scutella, on both sides, are strongly 

 marked small black blotches at intervals of 2, sometimes 3 scales. An- 

 terior portion of abdominal scutella black, maculated ; on head a black 

 band commences at anterior margin of superciliary and extends nearl}' 

 across and to nearly the entire width of the postfrontal; upper labials 

 margined with blackish-brown posteriorly, lower labials also ; a blotched 

 line of blackish-brown extends from posterior lower angle of orbit to 

 angle of mouth; under surface of jaw yellowish-white. 



The specimen described (N^o. 10403, Nat. Mus. Herp., s. i) was secured 

 near Fort Davis, Tex., by Hospital Steward von Manteuffcl. This post 

 is in the Ajjache Mountains, 50 miles from the Mexican border or Bio 

 Grande, Northwest of Presidio del Norte. The species is dedicated to 

 Prof. S. F. Baird, director Smithsonian Institution. 



