378 BULLETIN 58, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



List of specimens of Calamaria berezowskii. 



o Description p. 376. 



b Type, Guenther, p. 205. 



CALAMARIA PFEFFERI" Stejneger. 



1901. Calamaria pfeffa'i Stejneger, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, XIV, Dec. 12, 

 1901, p. 191 (type-locality, Miyakoshima, Sake shima group, Riu Kius; 

 type. Science Coll. Mus. Tokyo, No. 14). 



1903. Calamaria pavimentata Wall, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1903, p. 101 (not of 

 Dumeril and Bibron). 



Doctor Wall '' expresses tlie opinion that my C. i:>fefferi is nothing 

 but C. paimneyitata [Boulenger, not Dumeril and Bibron, = siamensis 

 Guenther], but nothing shows better than this case how- dangerous it 

 is to ''lump" species without having seen the material upon which 

 they are based or wdthout having at least material from the type 

 locality. As a matter of fact, it is not to the form mentioned by 

 Doctor Wall, but to Boulenger's C. hrevis that our Riu Kiu species is 

 most nearly related. With the latter it shares the long and narrow 

 head as well as the plain upper surface and spotted underside, and the 

 chief differences appear to be the shorter parietals and the low num- 

 l)er of ventrals in the latter. Unfortunately, the habitat of the unique 

 type of C. hrevis is not know^n, and the exact relationship of these two 

 forms must consequently remain unsettled until more material shall 

 have been accumulated and direct comparisons between typical 

 specimens instituted. 



Description. — Halfgrovm female; Science College Museum, Tokyo, 

 No. 14. Miyakoshima, Riu Kiu archipelago; type (figs. 313-316). 

 Rostral about as high as broad, the jDortion visible from above nearl}" 

 as long as suture between prefrontals; no internasals; prefrontals 

 smaller than frontal, in contact with first and second supralabials; 

 frontal considerably longer than broad, the width equaling the dis- 

 tance from tip of snout but shorter than interparietal suture, about 

 three and a half times as wide as supraoculars, six-sided, forming an 



a Named in honor of Dr. George Pfeffer, curator in the Natural History Museum, 

 Hamburg. 



b Proc. Zool. Soc. Loudon, 1903, p. 93, footuotu. 



