152 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



LAMPROPELTIS SPLENDIDA ( Baird and Girard) . 

 Ophibolas xple,uli<lu.^ Baird, U. S. and Mex. Bound. Surv., II, Rept., p. 20, 



pi. XIV. 



A fine specimen of this beautiful snake was obtained by Dr. Fisher 

 at Babacomari Creek, on May '22. It is typical in every respect, having 

 twenty-three scale rows and the very characteristic coloration of this 

 form. Specimens have been recorded from Tucson,' from Fort Bu- 

 chanan,^ and from Fort Lowell.'' I have compared the above speci- 

 men with four specimens from southern New Mexico (U.S.N.M. 

 Nos. 22373-22374, collected by Mr. Lane in the Mesilla Valley, 

 and U.S.N.M. No. 1849, two specimens from Fort Filmore), and one 

 from northern Texas (U.S.N.M. No. 1709, collected by Dr. Kennedy 

 between the Pecos and the Rio Grande), and find them all alike and 

 typical, with twenty-three scale rows. Neither can I discover any 

 essential differences in a specimen from San Diego, extreme southern 

 extension of Texas. This form, consequently, seems to skirt over 

 Mexican border pretty closely. It probably extends some distance 

 south into Mexico, how far we can only conjecture. 



There seems to be no necessity, for the present at least, to burden 

 this form with a trinominal. It is true that Western examples of what 

 is usually called " OphilxAuH .wy/,"* especially those from Arkansas 

 and Indian Territory approach the color pattern of Z. sj)lendid(i, ])ut 

 in the first place it is only an " approach/' and in the second place 

 they retain the normal number of twenty-one scale rows characteristic 

 of the form which we have just named L. holhrool'!. 



LAMPROPELTIS PYRRHOMELiENA (Cope). 



A verv fine specimen collected ])y Dr. Fisher in the Huachuca 

 Mountains at an altitude of 6,000 feet, on May 18, belongs to the typ- 

 ical, white-snouted form of this species. 



This form, which is characterized by having the entire snout anterior 

 to the frontal, including labials, pale yellow, by having the first black 



'U. S. and Mex. Bound. Surv., II, Rept., p. 20. 



2 Cope, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1860, p. 255. 



='Van Denburgh, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., (2) VI, 1896, p. 847. 



*A new name must be given to Holbrook's Coronella sayi, and I propose to call it 

 Lampropeltis holbrooU. The name was originally proposed by Holbrook under the 

 misapprehension that it was the species previously described by Schlegel as Coluber 

 sayi. Holbrook (N. Am. Herpet., 2 ed.. Ill, p. 99) expressly calls the species 

 " Coronella sai/i — Schlegel;" in the synonymy he quotes " Coluber saiji, Schlegel. 

 Phys. des Serp., torn. II, p. 157;" and at the end of the article (p. 101) he says: 

 ' ' Schlegel was the first naturalist who published a description of this beautiful animal, 

 in his excellent work entitled ' Essai sur la Physionomie des Serpens.' " Schlegel's 

 Coluber snyi, however, is an entirely different snake, viz, Pituophis sayi, and Hol- 

 brook's misapplication of the name given by Schlegel is consequently inadmissible 

 for the present species. This principle is recognized by all codes of nomenclature, 

 and I need not specifically quote the A. O. U. Code, Canon XXXIII. 



