366 BULLETIN 17 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



broadly in contact with it; 10 lower labials, 5 in contact with the 

 anterior chin shields and two with the posterior chin shields, which 

 are the longer; scales smooth, without pores, in 19 rows; ventrals 164; 

 anal divided; tail defective. 



Color (in alcohol) : Top of head olive-brown, lighter toward the snout, 

 darkening toward the occiput; a yellowish-white line running from the 

 snout over the eye and continuing on the sixth scale row including the 

 adjoining portion of the fifth and almost all the seventh; the area 

 between these lateral lines black, with occasionally a light line at the 

 edge of a scale; a dark lateral stripe beginning at the snout, becoming 

 black behind the eye and continuing along the body on the fourth row 

 including the adjoining halves of the third and fifth; below this black 

 stripe the body is bluish gray, with slightly darker edges on the scales ; 

 upper and lower labials cream-white, their posterior edges flecked 

 with black; throat and ventral surface cream-white with a few black 

 dots on the neck but otherwise immaculate. 



Variations. — The snake from Gonave Island varies only slightly 

 according to the specimens at hand. Head scalation is fairly uniform 

 in all the examples. The ventral plates range in number from 157 to 

 164 and the caudals from 130 to 138. 



The brilliant pattern of clear-cut light and dark stripes is more 

 marked in this subspecies than is the less intense coloration of the 

 allied protenus. The light lateral stripe is narrowed in the Gonave 

 Island form, occupying the sixth row and part of the seventh in all the 

 specimens. In Nos. 10170 and 60608 the adjoining part of the fifth 

 row is light throughout the entire body length; and in Nos. 75928 and 

 75929 the light stripe widens to involve the fifth row only on the 

 posterior part of the body. No. 75928 has a head and body length of 

 436 mm., tail, 307 mm. 



Specimens examined. — As listed in table 72. 



Table 72. — Specimens of Leimadophis parvifrons alleni examined 



