HERPETOLOGY OF JAPAN. 307 



cP Scale.s without pits; head not, or scarcely, distinct from neck. 



e^ Maxillary teeth posteriorly strongly enlarged; portion of rostral visible 



from above as great as its distance from frontal Holarchus, p. 353. 



e^ Maxillary teeth equal; portion of rostral visible from above less than its 



distance from frontal Liopeltis, p. 337. 



p No anterior temporal, parietal being in contact with supralabials 



Calamaria. p. 375. 



Genus ELAPHE" Fitzinger. 



1826. Coluber Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 209 (type, C. flavescens; not of Linnaeus). 



1833. Elaphe Fitzinger, in Wagler's Descr. et Icon. Amphib., Ill, text to 



pi. XXVII (type, E. parrcysii). 



1834. Callopeltis Fitzinger, in Bonaparte's Iconogr. Fauna Ital., fasc. VII (type, 



C. leopardina). 

 1840. Elaphis Bonaparte, Mem. Accad. Sci. Torino (2), II, Sci. Fis. Mat., p. 402 



(emendation). 

 1843. Pantherophis Fitzinger, Syst. Rept., p. 25 (type. Coluber guttatus). 

 1843. Calopeltis Fitzinger, Syst. Rept., p. 26 (emendation). 

 1853. Scotophis Baird and Girard, Cat. N. Am. Rept., I, Serp., p. 73 (type, 



Coluber alleghaniensis) . 

 1860. Leptophidium Hallowell, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1860, p. 497 (type, L. 



dor sale). 

 1860. Proterodon Hallowell, Proc. Phila. Acad.,' 1860, p. 498 (type, P. tessel- 



latus). 

 1862. Natrix Cope, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1862. p. 338 (type. Coluber flavescens; not 



of Laurenti). 

 1864. Phyllophis GvE^TJi^n, Rept. Brit. India, p. 295 (type, P. carinata). 



The above synonymy refers chiefly to such names as have been 

 employed m connection with species treated of in this work. 



The generic name Coluher is commonly applied to this genus, but 

 as will be shown under that heading further on, without strict observ- 

 ance of the rules of zoological nomenclature, inasmuch as the 

 authors who have specifically selected types for a restricted genus 

 Coluher have invariably selected species unknown to Linnaeus at the 

 time he instituted the genus. The first one to mention a specific 

 type was Fleming, in 1822, but he selected a Python unknown to 

 Linnaeus. The next one was Boie,^ who again selected a post-Lin- 

 nsean species, namely, Scopoli's C. flavescens. 



« This name is apparently a blunder for Elaphis. The latter is generally considered 

 as derived from EXacpoi, a deer, referring either to the coloring of the snake, or to its 

 swiftness. Aldrovandi, who seems to be the source whence the modern authors 

 received the name, apparently considered it as of the same origin as Elaps and Elops. 

 See Aldrovandi Serpentum et Draconum Historia, Chapter XV, "De Elaphe, sive 

 Elape aut Elope." 



b Isis, 1826, p. 209, and 1827, p. 518. 



