268 BULLETIN 58, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Life colors, according to Dr. H. M. Smith, "light browTi above; 

 belly cream color." 



The young, as shown by a specimen in our collection from Shikoku 

 (U.SiN.M. No. 31850) only 155 mm. in total length, is essentially as 

 the adult; the ground color, however, is darker and there are two 

 distinct series of numerous roundish, pale, dark-edged dots, located 

 on the fifth and sixth scale-row\s on each side. 



Variation. — A noteworthy variation in this species is the occasional 

 joinmg of the parietal to one of the supralabials, noteworthy particu- 

 larly because it was the condition found in Boie's type. In two of 

 our specimens (No. 30730, from Kuisiu, and No. 34028, from Mount 

 Fuji) the contact is between the parietal and the sixth supralabial 

 behind the first temporal, and in another specimen (No. 34029) there 

 is such a contact on one side. The number of preoculars varies to 

 some extent, but one is the normal number, not a single specimen of 

 the 22 before me having more. Strauch, on the other hand, found 

 two out of four specimens. Altogether, his series was extraordinarily 

 variable, as their postoculars varied between two, three, and two and 

 three, while the supralabials showed the unusual variation of coa- 

 lescing to the extent of being reduced to six, or even five. We have 

 12 with three postoculars, 4 with two and 3, and 3 with two, 

 while all have 7 supralabials except three, which have 8 on one side, 

 and one (No. 34034fl) which has 8 on both sides. This additional 

 labial is interpolated in front of the eye, and in one of the specimens 

 the interpolation occurs on both sides, but the normal number of 7 

 is restored on one side by the coalescing of two labials behind the eye.*^ 



Remarlcs. — The relationship of this species to Natrix Idiasiensis , 

 from Assam, and A^. craspedogaster , from Fokien, has been alluded to 

 above (p. 264). It is not only shown in the unmistakable pattern of 

 the upper lip and its continuation in the nuchal crescent, but also in 

 the postparietal median light streak and in the series of white spots 

 on the body of N. craspedogaster and the young N. vihakari described 

 above (p. 268). About the relationships with N. pryeri, see under the 

 latter species (p. 286). 



Hahitat. — Common thoughout Japan from Kiusiu to Yezo. Doctor 

 Nozawa has informed me that it occurs in the latter island, ])ut he 

 has sent no specimen as yet. Numerous specimens from the neigh- 

 borhood of Tokyo, Yokohama, and Nagasaki are in the various 

 museums, as well as some from Kobe, Miyazaki, and other places. 



Outside of Japan it has been found in the Russian Coast Province 

 from Possiet Bay, on the Korean frontier (Mus. St. Petersburg), to 

 Vladivostok (Hamburg Mus. No. 2170) and Khabarovka, at the 

 junction of the IJssuri with the Amur (Brit. Mus.). In 1885 Jouy 



a For further variations see Wall, Proc. Zool. Soc. London. 1905, II, p. 513. 



