360 BULLETIN 58, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



rarely. Temporals also are nearly always 2+3, but Boettger records 

 a Formosa specimen with 2+2 and Doctor Wall one specimen with a 

 sing;le temporal in the first row. He also mentions a specimen with 

 three postoculars on both sides and one with three on one side. The 

 greatest variation is seen in the relation of the loreal and the conse- 

 quent relation of the supralabials to the eye. In our specimens it 

 reaches the eye in one, but not in the other. In 16 Chinese specimens 

 examined by Doctor Wall it touched the eye in 11 and did not 

 reach it in 5, while in the large series of Chinese specimens recorded 

 by Boulenger, viz, 23, the proportion must have been quite different, 

 as in the description of the species he says "loreal elongate, sometimes 

 entering the eye." The resultant variations in the relation of the 

 supralabials to the eye are given by Boulenger as rare, viz, second, 

 third, and fourth, or only fourth and fifth entering eye. The number 

 of lower labials in touch with anterior chin-shield is also subject to 

 some variation. Doctor Wall having found four on both sides in one, 

 and six on one side in two specimens. The normal range of variation 

 in the number of ventrals seems to be between 189 and 209, 185 as 

 recorded by Boulenger in a young Shanghai specimen being quite 

 abnormal; 57 subcaudals in another specimen of the same origin is 

 also considerably below the normal range, which appears to be 62 to 83. 

 It will be noted that the Formosa specimens average a greater number 

 of subcaudals than the specimens from the mainland of China, but the 

 overlapping is not only very great but appears to be uncorrelated 

 with other characters. 



The. number of dark cross-bars on body and tail varies considerably 

 within the limits of 68 and 99 in the specimens in which they have 

 been recorded, the greatest range being on the body, viz, 50 to 75, as 

 against 18 to 24 on the tail. 



Habitat. — The present species extends over a large portion of eastern 

 China, including the islands of Hainan,"^ Formosa, and Chusan, rang- 

 ing northward at least as far as Vladivostok, from which locality a 

 specimen has been recorded by Mueller as being in the Basel Museum. 

 It also occurs in Korea, but no definite locality has been recorded, the 

 only specimen of certain Korean origin being in the Michigan Univer- 

 sity museum. 



Hoist sent two specimens from Tsushima to British Museum. 



It has not been recorded from Japan proper. A fine specimen of the 

 continental type, in the United States National Museum (No. 14614), 

 collected by Dr. N. M. Ferebee, U. S. Navy, is credited on the record 

 book to Nagasaki, but there is no original label or any other original 

 document to corroborate this locality of this specimen which came 

 with a collection all the other specimens of which are from Korea. As 



« Regarding this locality, see under Elaphc dionc, p. 318, footnote. 



