658 NORTH AMERICAN SNAKES COPE. 



lu eleven specimoMs from Fresno, Cal., only the smaller ones have 

 distinct indications of lateral spots. In five from near San Francisco, 

 Cal., the spots remain distinct in the adults, as in the type of Baird and 

 Girard. 



This subsi)ecies resembles the Eatmnia ele<jans lineoiata, but it has 



always (sixteen specimens) one row of scales less on each side ; the 



dorsal stripe is wide and better deiined, and the colors are much 



brighter. 



EiiUenia infernalis iufenuilin Bd. and Gird. 



I 



Besides the six specimens of this form, said to be from San Francisco, 

 Baird and Girard enumerate two from California. 



h. iSutaenia infernalis vidua Cope. 



Body moderately robust, compressed to the base of the tail; head 

 moderately distinct; muzzle moderately elongate. Tail from 3| to 3;^: 

 times in total length, compressed for the basal half. Scales in nineteen 

 rows graduating in size from the first on each side, which is as deep 

 as wide and very feebly keeled. Other hcales not very elongate, feebly 

 notched. Superior labials eight, all higher than long. Loreal not 

 longer than high; oculars 1-3, temporals 1-2-3; one of tbe second row 

 larger than the re.st. Geneials narrow, subequal. Frontal short, twice 

 as wide as the superciliaries anteriorly. Scuta, 151-1-77. 



Color black, without markings, excepting a yellow olivaceous throat 

 and chin, and a yellow dorsal stripe which covers one and two lialt' 

 rows of scales from the parietal plates to the basal third of the tail, 

 whence it runs on a single row to the end of the latter. Muzzle and 

 labial plates uniform lead color; throat yellowish. 



This species is so far known from the two original specimens only, 

 which are in excellent i)reservation. It resembles in general character.^ 

 the si)ccies of the E. sirtaiis group, but is quite different froui any of the 

 forms which I have included in that [iroteau species. The tail is longer, 

 as I find out of ninety-seven si)ecimens of the latter which I have 

 measured; but five have the tail as short as in the specimen of E. vidua, 

 with the shortest tail (3i|), and none with so long a tail as tlie other (3i). 

 The eight superior labials distinguish it from all but four specimens 

 of the ninety-seven, and in some of them the additional labial is an in 

 tercalatioii. Two of these four specimens come from the same locality, 

 viz, San Francisco. Tiie compressed body is seen in a few specimens 

 of the E. sirtalis, also from the Pacific region, but not in any other 

 forms. In some of these the strip<js disappear, but altogether, and not 

 the lateral only, leaving a well-developed dorsal, as in the E. e. vidua. 



