310 



BULLETIN 58, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



a Chinese specimen with 21. Ventrals vary from 208 to 221 and cau- 

 dals from 80 to 97. According to Boulenger an unthvided'anal and 

 nine siipralabials are rare features. Four lower hibials in contact 

 with anterior chin-shields as often as five. The above figures are 

 derived from 17 specimens, of which only three are from Formosa. 



This snake evidently grows to a great size, as Doctor Wall has 

 recorded a specimen measuring 8 feet 1 inch (2.44 meters.). 



Habitat. — Peculiar to China, where it has been obtained from near 

 Shanghai, in the north, to Kuatun in Fokien in the south, and as far 

 west as Lung-ngan-fu in the western part of the province of Sze- 

 chuen. 



In Formosa three specimens were collected by Mr. Tada in 1897, 

 and a fourth specimen is in the zoological museum in Christiania, col- 

 lected by Mr. Navara in 1894. 



List of specimens of Elaphe carinata. 



a P. 309. 



^ Description, p. 308; figs. 266-268. 



ELAPHE RUFODORSATA" (Cantor) 



1842. Tropidonotus rufodorsatus Cantor, Zool. Chusan (pi. xiii) (type-locality, 

 Chusan, China; types in Brit. Mus. ; Cantor, collector). — Coluber rufo- 

 dorsatus SwiNHOE, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (3), XII, 1863, p. 225 (Tamsui, 

 Formosa). — Guenther, Rept. Brit. India, 1864, p. 238, pi. xx, fig. G. — 

 Strauch, Mem. Acad. Sci. St. Petersb. (7), XXI, no. 4, 1873, pp. 79, 270 

 (Khinggan; High Gobi; Dauria; Possiet Bay). — Mueller, Verh. Naturf. 

 Ges. Basel, VII, Pt. 3, p. 681 (Tientsin).— Boettger, Offenbach. Ver. 

 Naturk. 26-28 Ber., 1888, pp. 70, 130 (Shanghai); Ber. Senckenberg. 

 Naturf. Ges., 1894, p. 140 (Luechan Mts., Hankow); p. 144 (Lake Sitai, 

 near Shanghai); Kat. Schl. Mus. Senckenberg., 1898, p. 50 (Chinhai, 

 near Ningpo). — Boulenger, Cat. Sn. Brit. Mus., II, 1894 p. 43 (eastern 

 China, Formosa, Hainan). — Wall, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1903, p. 91 

 (China). — Werner, Abh. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. (Muenich), II Klasse, 

 XXII, Pt. 2, 1904, p. 356 (Shanghai; Hankow).— Nikolski, Zap. Imp. 

 Akad. Nauk, S. Peterburg (8), XVII, no. 1 (1905), p. 248 (Possiet Bay; 

 Korea). — Ablabes rufodorsatus Boulenger, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6), V, 

 Feb. 1890, p. 138 (eastern Siberia; Peking). 



o Signifying red-backed. 



