HERPETOLOGY OF JAPAN. 433 



frontal as lont^ as its distance from rostral, once and a half as long- 

 as wide, shorter than parietals; parietals as long as frontal and 

 interprefrontal suture together; no loreal; one preocular; two post- 

 oculars; 8 supraoculars, seventh and eighth very small and low, 

 fifth a low triangidar piece separated off from sixth, second in con- 

 tact with prefrontal, very high and large; 8 lower labials in contact 

 with anterior pair of chin-shields which arc larger than posterior, 

 the latter separated by two scales; 34 rows of slightly tuberculated 

 scales on neck, 43 on middle of body, the tubercles on the latter 

 more strongly developed; 246 bituberculated ventrals; preanal 

 region covered with scales, four of which form the anterior edge of 

 the vent, the outer ones on each side slightly longer than the others; 

 39 subcaudals; terminal scale of tail but slightly enlarged. Color 

 (in alcohol) buffy white with a tinge of gray on the back and throat; 

 46 slaty-gray crossbars on neck and body and 8 on tail, broadest 

 on middle of back, where broader than the light interspaces, grad- 

 ually narrowing to the middle of the sides whence they extend as 

 narrow, paler-colored bands to the abdomen, which many of them 

 cross; head nearly uniformly isabella-colored ; the last three bands 



on the tail blackish. 



Dirnermons. 



Head rather large; neck thick; body shurt, high, and very compressed. 



mm. 



Total length 790 



Snout to vent 690 



Vent to tip of tail 100 



Width of head 19 



Diameter of neck 19 



Greatest height of l)ody 51 



Greatest height of tail 27 



The males are much slenderer posteriorly, the greatest height of 

 body being less than twice as high as the neck. 



Variation. — Under the preliminary discussion of this species 

 (p. 431) reference is made to the variation of chin-shields and num- 

 ber of ventrals in this species. The supralabials are also subject to 

 considerable variation, chiefly caused by the irregular breaking up 

 of the posterior shields and the consequent uneven arrangement of 

 the fragments edging the lip. This irregidarity in the posterior 

 supralabials also afl^ects the adjacent temporals inasmuch as a 

 shield becomes a labial or a temporal according to whether the lower 

 portion of it is cut off so entirely as to exclude the upper portion 

 from the edge of the lip, or not. 



Habitat. — The distribution of D. godeffroyi, as here understood, is a 

 curiously disconnected one, inasmuch as the only specimens referred 

 to it are known from the Kingsmill Islands in Polynesia, and from 



26485— No. 58—07 28 



