326 BULLETIN 58, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The young, for instance No. 34050, have no longitudinal dark bands; 

 on the back there are numerous brown transverse, black-edged spots, 

 separated by whitish cross bands and alternating on the sides with a 

 series of brown spots; whole underside whitish, posteriorly with 

 dark edges to the ventrals; an oblique blackish band from eye back- 

 ward crossing the last supralabial, but otherwise no pattern on head; 

 supralabials narrowdj^ edged with dusky. 



Variation. — Only one specimen with an undivided anal is recorded. 

 The subpreocular is more variable; it is absent on one side in our 

 No. 34003; in the Hamburg Museum No. 2427 it is lacking on both 

 sides, though indicated on the right side by a minute granule; Doctor 

 Wall has found it absent in one specimen in a lot of eleven; Hil- 

 gendorf in 16 specimens found it absent in one on both sides and on 

 one side in one. He also found three postoculars on both sides in 

 two specimens and on one side in one specimen, while one postocular 

 only was present once on both sides and twice on one side. Doctor 

 Wall records two specimen, with three anterior temporals on both sides. 

 In all specimens examined by me the prefrontals are in contact with 

 supraocular. The two specimens from Shikoku have the parietals 

 unusually pointed behind. In the young the frontal is longer relative 

 to its distance from tip of snout. 



The normal number of scale rows appears to be 23, but 25 per cent 

 of the specimens recorded below have 25. Ventrals range between 

 224 and 244, subcaudals between 97 and 122. 



Habitat. — Formerly believed to be confined to Japan proper where 

 it appears to be common from Kiusiu to Yezo, there being numerous 

 specimens from various localities in the museums. ° Doctor Werner 

 has recenth^ recorded two specimens in the Munich Zoological Museum 

 said to have been collected by Doctor Haberer in Tsingtau and 

 Hankow, China. It should be remembered, however, that he also 

 collected in Japan and that he has credited two more Japanese species 

 to China, which have not been obtained there by any other collector 

 (see pp. 331, 336). 



There are two specimens (No. 7) in the Imperial Museum, Ueno 

 Park, Tokyo, which are said to be from Okinawa shima, but the 

 locality given is almost certainly erroneous. 



o Tokyo; Mount Fuji; Yokohama; Kochi, Shikoku (U. S. Nat. Mus.). Mount Onsen, 

 Shimabara, Kiusiu; Nagasaki; Nikko; Miyanoshta (Brit. Mus.). Tokyo; Nikko (Sci. 

 Coll. Tokyo). Hakone Mts; Miyanoshta.; Nikko (Mus. Senckenberg.). Nagasaki; 

 Yamato; Kawachi (Hamburg Mus.). Nagasaki (Stockhohn Mus.). 



