340 BULLETIN 58, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, 



List of specimens oj Liopeltis major. 



a Description, p. 338; figs. 287-289. Type of H. Moris. 



fcBoulenger, Cat. II, p. 279. 



LIOPELTIS SEMICARINATA" (Hallowell). 



1860. 



1868. 



Eurypholis semicarinatus Hallowell, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1860, p. 493 

 (type-locality, Nafa, Okinawa shima, Riu Kiu; types, U. S. Nat. Mus., 

 No. 7316; Wright, collector). — Ablabes semicarinatus Boulenger, Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. London. 1887, p. 148 ("Loochoo Islands," Pryer, collector); 

 Cat. Sn. Brit. Mus., II, 1894, p. 278 (Great Loochoo Island; Hoist, col- 

 lector; Nagasaki!).— Fritze, Zool. Jahrb. Syst., VII, 1894, p. 862; author's 

 separate, p. 13 (Okinawa shima), p. 864; author's separate, p. 15 (Amami-o- 

 shima).— Boettger, Offenbach. Ver. Naturk. 33-36 Ber., 1895, p. 

 115 (Miyakoshima, Yaeyama group"*; Kat. Schl. Mus. Senckenberg. , 1898, 

 p. 78. — Wall, Proc. Zool. Soc, London, 1903, p. 101 (Japan; LooChoos); 

 1905, II, p. 515 (Okinawa; Amami). 



Cyclophis nebulosus Guenther, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (4), I, p. 418, pl.xix, 

 fig. c (type-locality, Nagasaki!; type in Brit. Mus.; Whitely, collector). 



The two specimens which served Hallowell as types for this species 

 are still in the United States National Museum (No. 7316) in a fair 

 state of preservation. The scale formulas, as given by him and as 

 counted by me, agree pretty well, but his dimensions do not. He 

 says: Total length, 1 foot 7f inches; of tail, 4 inches, five lines [Pied 

 du Roi], the equivalents in mm being about 536 and 118. The two 

 specimens, as measured by Mr. Paine, my assistant, are: Total length, 

 492 and 564 mm.; tail, 107 and 122 mm., a considerable discrepancy. 

 The means of the two specimens, however, viz, 528 and 115, are so 

 near Hallowell's figures that it may be regarded as certain that the 

 latter are not intended to represent the dimensions of the individual 

 snake. 



An examination of the type of Guenther's Cyclophis nebulosus, 

 which I was permitted to make in 1898, fully confirms Boulenger's 

 view that it is only the young of the present species. The young speci- 

 men collected by Hoist in Okinawa shima has the frontal shield con- 

 siderably larger than Guenther's type, but is otherwise indistinguish- 

 able, and a young specimen from ^liyakoshima of the Saki shima 

 group now before me and described below is also similar. The alleged 



« Signifying half- keeled, the scales of the body being only keeled in their anterior 

 half. 



