HEEPETOLOGY OF JAPAN. 



349 



both sides. The number of ventrals varies between 161 and 177, the 

 subcaudals between 122 and 145. Doctor Wall gives the latter as 

 110-116, but some error seems to be involved in this statement, as 

 our five specimens from the Malay Peninsula corroborate Boulenger's 

 figures, there being from 133 to 140 subcaudals. In our six specimens 

 the preocular touches the frontal in only one specimen, namely, the 

 one described above, in all the others the prefrontals and supraoculars 

 are in decided contact. 



Habitat. — This snake belongs to the group of species which extend 

 from the eastern Himalayas eastward through southern China, in this 

 case at least as far north as Amoy, and southward through the Malay 

 Peninsula to Sumatra and Java. 



It is admitted to the fauna of Formosa on the strength of a speci- 

 men stated by Doctor Wall to be in the Hongkong City Hall Museum. 

 The records of this collection, as explained by him, can not now be 

 trusted, and while it is true that no other collector has obtained it 

 there, the general distribution of the species is such as to make its 

 occurrence in Formosa probable. 



List of specimens of Ptyas korros. 



U.S. 

 N.M. 

 No. 



26233 

 22877 

 ''2878 

 22879 

 22880 

 22953 



Age. 



Locality. 



Adult a . Trong. Lower Siam 

 ....do '.do 



do .. .' do 



...do...! do 



do .. .1 do 



do do 



When 

 col- 

 lected. 



By whom collected. 



Dr. W. L. } bbott . 



do 



do 



do 



do 



do 



a Description, p. 348. 



Genus ZAMENIS" Wagler. 



1830. Zamenis Wagler, Nat. Syst. Amph., p. 188 (type, Coluber viridiflavus). 

 1843. Eremiophis Fitzinger, Syst. Rept., p. 25 (type, C. trabalis). 

 1843. Hierophis Fitzinger, Syst. Rept., p. 26 (type, C. viridiflavus). 

 1862. Tyria Cope, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1862, p. 338 (substitute for Zamenis) (not 

 of Fitzinger, 1826). 



ZAMENIS SPINALIS 6 (Peters). 



1866. Masticophis spinalis Peters, Mon. Ber. Berlin Akad. Wiss., 1866, p. 91 

 (type-locality, "Mexico;" type in Berlin Mus.). — Moellendorff, Journ. 

 N. China Br. R. Asiat. Soc. (n. s.). XI, 1877, p. 104 {Feking).— Zamenis 

 spinalis GvEKTHER, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (4), IX, 1872, p. 22 (N. China).— 



"From ^aiiEvrji, irascible. 



^ Signifying pertaining to the spine, or backbone, with reference to the yellow, 

 black-edged vertebral line. 



