HERPETOLOGY OP JAPAN. ' 279 



the various codes of nomenclature, the last-named form receives the 

 trinominal; tlius in this case the Chinese form hecomes Natrix tigrina 

 lateralis. 



In the above discussion I have made no reference to a specimen in 

 the Imperial Museum, Ueno Park, Tokyo (No. 20), alleged to have 

 been collected at Naha, Okinawa Shima. As already mentioned 

 under N. tigrina, this locality is so unsupported by other evidence 

 that one is justified in suspecting a mistake in labelins;. This speci- 

 men, according to the count which I made while in Tokyo in 1895, has 

 163 ventrals and 64 subcaudals — showing the minimum in the above- 

 mentioned series of Japanese specimens. It is otherwise identical 

 with specimens of the tiger snake collected around Tokyo, and I have 

 but little doubt that it is a Japanese specimen of N. tigrina, with a 

 minimum number of scutes, if my count was really correct. 



There is no specimen of this form in the United States National 

 Museum, but as the chief difference from N. tigrina consists in the 

 lower number of ventrals and subcaudals, as indicated above, a 

 detailed description is not necessary. In all other respects the scale 

 formula agrees with that of the Japanese form. The color appears to 

 differ in the absence of alternation of the dorsal and lateral spots. 

 Doctor Guenther describes the color of the types of his Tropidonotus 

 orientalis as follows: 



"Greenish olive, with three series of black spots anteriorly, becom- 

 ing very indistinct on the middle of the trunk ; a black subcrescentic 

 spot on each side of the neck, without yellow; posterior margins of the 

 upper labials and a spot on the temple black. Belly more or less 

 blackish." 



Hahitat. — The mainland form of the tiger snake is distributed along 

 the eastern coast of Asia from Olga Bay in the Russian Coast Prov- 

 ince to Hainan and, if Jan's localities are correct, to Cochin China 

 and Siam." Boettger even seems to think that the specimen in 

 British Museum credited to Hainan may have come from some 

 other locality, or at least from the mountainous interior of that 

 island. Possibly the Siamese origin also refers to specimens obtained 

 in the mountains of the interior. It is not recorded from Formosa. 

 Westward it has been found by Berezowski as far as southern Kansu, 

 the province next to Thibet. 



Both Mr. Leech and Doctor Giglioli obtained specimens in Gen- 

 san, northern Korea, and the Warshaw Museum has it from Strelok, 

 a military post on the Bay of Peter the Great. Giglioli even obtained 



o It may not be out of place to remark here that in Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1899, 

 p. 661, Mr. Stanley S. Flower gives a table of 21 specimens from Penang, Kedah, and 

 Bangkok, which has the appearance of belonging to Tropidonotus tigrinus. This is 

 due to a mistake in the typography, as the table, which is not self-explanatory, was 

 apparently meant to follow the account of Tropidonotus piscutor. 



