HERPETOLOGY OF JAPAN. 359 



Description. — Adult male; U.S.N.M. No. 14614; Korea?; Dr. N. M. 

 Ferebee, collector. Rostral about one and a half times as broad as 

 high, the portion visible from above equaling about one-third its dis- 

 tance from frontal; internasals very much smaller than prefrontals, 

 which are broadly in contact with supraocular; frontal short and 

 broad, its length equaling its distance from rostral and shorter than 

 interparietal suture, its width anteriorly nearly equaling its length, 

 and its width at a line through the center of the eyes twice as great as 

 that of the supraoculars at the same line; parietals large, twice as long 

 as prefrontals; nostril large, between two nasals, of which the poste- 

 rior is the larger; loreal twice as long as high, entering eye below the 

 small preocular, which is widely separated from frontal; two post- 

 oculars; temporals 2 + 3, the upper one of the second row bordering 

 the parietal very large; 8 supralabials, third, fourth, and fifth enter- 

 ing eye, sixth, and seventh subequal, largest; five lower labials in 

 contact with anterior chin-shields, which are considerably longer than 

 the posterior; 17 rows of scales, which are smooth except a few median 

 dorsal rows]on the posterior fourth of the body, which show faint keels 

 at the base of the scales; 197 ventrals; anal entire; 71 pairs of sub- 

 caudals. Color (in alcohol) pinkish buff (in life said to be coral red) 

 with about 58 broad, dark brown cross-bars on upper side of body and 

 23 on tail, the bars being separated by narrow bands, about the width 

 of a scale, of the ground color; a series of alternating dark blotches on 

 the sides involving the four outer scale rows and the upturned end of 

 the ventrals; top of head isabella-color with ill-defined pale borders to 

 many of the shields; labials and underside uniform pale, that of the 

 tail with irregular dusky blotches. 



Dimensions. 



mm. 



Total length 1, 063 



Snout to vent 863 



Vent to tip of tail 200 



In a younger specimen, from the country between Tientsin and 

 Peking (No. 29701), all the dark markings are solid black, even the top 

 of the head and the light edges to the head shields are better con- 

 trasted. There is, moreover, a somewhat ill-defined black transocu- 

 lar spot from' nostril to the temporal region with radiating black 

 edges to the supralabials. 



Variation. — With the exception of the scutellation of the sides of 

 the head this snake is not subject to great variation. Thus of 29 

 recorded specimens only one has 2 scale rows over the normal number, 

 17.'* The number of supralabials 8 is fairly constant, 7 occurring only 



a Dr. J. S. Thompson, U. S. N., in a letter dated February 9, 1907, informs me 

 that he has a specimen from Formosa with 19 scale rows. 



