660 NORTH AMERICAN SNAKES COPE. 



of scales except ou the posterior half, where it occupies the second row 

 only. It is bordered below by a band of a rather lighter brown than 

 that of the space above it, on the first row of scales, and on the angles 

 of the gastrosteges, which enter between the separate scales of the 

 latter. Every other scale of the first row has a black speck at its ai)per 

 and lower base. Belly immaculate yellow, except a black shade at the 

 base of the extremity of a few of the scuta, which is only visible ou 

 stretching the latter apart. 



This handsome form resembles the Entwnia elegans hrunnca in gen- 

 eral form and appearance, but the latter has no nuchal spots nor black 

 labial borders, nor band beneath the lateral stripe. It belongs to a 

 different section of the genus. Its nuchal spots and labial borders are 

 like those of the EuUvnia cyrtopsis, but it is not a slender-bodied 

 species, and the scales are wider than in that form, representing a dif- 

 ferent type in the genus. 



I have seen but one specimen of this subspecies, which I took near 

 Lake Valley, in southern New Mexico. There is no specimen in the 

 U. S. National Museum. 



Eutaenia leptocephala Bd. aud Gird. 



Cope in Yarrow's Reptilia, Vol. v; Rep. U. S. G. G. Siirv. W. of 100th Mer., p. 550; 

 Catalogue of Serpents, 1853, p. 29; Proc. Acad. Phila., 1883, p. 23; Eutcenia 

 cooperii Keiinicott, U. S. Pac. R. R. Siirv., xii, PI. ii, p. 296; Cope, 1. c., 551; 

 EiiUvnia airata Keiinicott, loc. cit. ; TropidonotiDi sirtalis, var. leptocephaJa, Jan. 

 Icon. Gen. Ofid., ii, 25; iv, Fig. 2. 



This is a diminished or' depauperate form of the E. sirtalis series, with 

 a tendency to reduction in the number of the scale rows aud labial 

 jdates, and subdivision of the preocular plate. Of tweuty-four speci- 

 meus twelve have nineteen, and twelve have seventeen rows of scales. 

 The latter character has given rise to the synonym E. cooperii. Rather 

 less than half the specimens have two preoculars, while in about one- 

 fourth, a fusion of two or u)ore of the superior labial plates on one or 

 both sides is seen, reducing the number to six or five. The two most 

 frequently fused are the third and fourth, which bound the orbit below, 

 and next, the fifth is fused with the fourth. 



The stripes are sometimes very distinct and the spots fused into a 

 black band between them, and all stages exist between this condition 

 and tliat in which the colors are light and both stripes and spots are 

 indistinct. All the specimens come from the coast region of the Pacific 

 district north of Humboldt Bay, California.* 



* EuT,KNiA SCALARIS Cope, Pioc. Acad. Pliila., 18()6, ]>. 306; Thamnophis scalaris 

 Cope, 1. c, 1860, p. 369. States of Piiebia and Vera Ciiiz, Mexico. 



EuT^NiA PULCHRiLATUS Cope, Proc. Amer. Pliilos. Soc, 1884, pp. 173, 174. States 

 of Mexico, Hidalgo, Puebla, and Vera Cruz, Mexico. 



