HERPETOLOGY OF JAPAN. 39 



reach this proportion; in two it is hetween seven and eiiz;ht times, while 

 in three it is only seven, the proportion given ])v Strauch for S. keyser- 

 I'mgii. 



Strauch, in the description of S. wosnessensJcyi, mentions several 

 other slight characters such as can only be appreciated with specimens 

 of both species for actual comparison. Thus the snout is said to be 

 shorter and much more bluntly rounded; the tongue somewliat shorter 

 in proportion to its width; the lateral and ventral folds to be better 

 developed. The alleged difference in their number, viz, 12 in S. Icey- 

 serlingii and 13 in S. wosnessensJcyi he admits is inconstant, and as a 

 matter of fact I find the latter number to be the exception in my series. 

 Strauch also intimates that the Kamchatkan form has longer extremi- 

 ties inasmuch as the fore limbs when bent forward and pressed to the 

 side of the body reach beyond the anterior border of the eye, but this 

 proportion is reached by only one of my specimens (No. 31716) ; in the 

 others it falls considerably short of this point, and in one (No. 31713) 

 it reaches barely beyond the posterior border of the eye. 



Finally, the coloration seems to be identical in both forms, as I have 

 found nothing in the description of true *S'. Jceyserlingii which would 

 separate it from the Kamchatkan form as far as color is concerned. 



Wliile thus unable to distinguish the two species from the descrip- 

 tions, I was unwilling to unite them, as I have only specimens of 

 one of them. I now learn, however, from Professor Nikolski that he 

 has convinced himself not only that S. uralensis, which was published 

 by him as a nomen nudum but also S. wosnessensJcyi are identical with 

 S. Jceyserlingii, and that he has so considered them in his new work 

 "Herpetologia Rossica" (1905). Under these circumstances I can see 

 no reason for maintaining two distinct headings for this species. 

 Prof. B. Shitkov has also informed me (letter of May 18, 1906) that he 

 regards the S. wosnessensJcyi at most as a variety. 



Description. — Adult; U.S.N.M. No. 22594; Rakovaya Bukhta, 

 Avatcha Bay, Kamchatka; L. Stejneger, collector (figs. 33-38). 

 Vomero-palatine teeth in an angular series, the median angle being 

 directed backward about 45°, and its arms about as long as half the 

 width of the tongue, the lateral retroverted angles much more obtuse, 

 or about 60°; head flat; nostrils about halfway between eye and tip 

 of snout, their distance from each other more than the interorbital 

 width; eye large, upper eyelid longer than interorbital width and 

 slightly wider than one-half the same; body elongate, the head from 

 tip of snout to gular fold being contained three and one-half times in 

 the distance from gular fold to anterior border of vent ; fingers and 

 toes of adpressed limbs do not meet by a chstance of four costal folds; 

 limbs rather slender, digits short, four on each foot, scarcely webbed 

 at base; tail less than distance from tip of snout to vent, compressed 

 from behind the vent, not keeled, the upper outline straight to the 



