446 BULLETIN 58, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



V, Feb. 1890, p. 139 (Possiet Bay to Sakhalin); Cat. Sn. Brit. Mus., Ill, 

 1896, p. 476 (Sakhalin). — Pelias berus Dobrotvorski, Izvest. Sibir. Otd. 

 Geogr. Obstchest., I, 1870 (p. 23) (Sakhalin).— Doederlein, Mitth. 

 Deutsch. Ges. Ost-Asiens, III, heft 22, Dec. 1880, p. 89 (Sakhalin). 

 1822. Chersea mlgaris Fleming, Philos. Zool., II, p. 295. — Berus vulgaris Swain- 

 son, Classif. Fish. Amph. Kept., 11, (Lardner's Cab. Encycl.), p. 362. 



The numerous synonyms based upon European color varieties are 

 here omitted. 



No distinctions have been pointed out between east Asiatic and 

 European specimens, and no tangible ones seem to exist. It is per- 

 haps worth noticing that the number of ventrals of all the eastern 

 specimens recorded is rather high, viz, between 143 and 158, averag- 

 ing about 150, while in a large number of western specimens (167) 

 the average is about 145. This tendency toward a lower number 



358 



Figs. 358-360.— Coluber berus. L', x nat. .size. ;«s. Tor ok head; 359, side oi head; 300, under- 

 side OF head. No. 1432.5, U.S.N.M. 



of ventrals in the west is shown by a still lower average of 143 ven- 

 trals in 54 British specimens or even 137.5 in 11 specimens from the 

 Pyrenean peninsula. 



Description.^Adult female; U.S.N.M. No. 14325; Dui, island of 

 Sakhalin (figs. 358-360). Rostral slightly higher than wide, well 

 visible from above; snout above covered by about 16 scales, the 

 fragments of internasals and prefrontals, of which two join the rostral 

 and two larger ones cover the canthus rostralis between naso-rostral 

 and supraocular; frontal as long as its distance from tip of snout, 

 wider than supraoculars, from which it is separated by a series of 

 scales; parietals irregularly broken up, the two large shields adjoining 

 the frontal somewhat smaller than the latter; nostril large, in the 

 middle of the posterior nasal, the anterior nasal, or prenasal, not 

 entering nostril and therefore also known as naso-rostral; three 

 loreals behind posterior nasal, one above, two below; eye on sides 

 and below surrounded by nine scales, ten on right side; temporals 

 numerous scales, more or less irregular, those of the anterior row not 

 larger than the postoculars; nine supralabials, fourth and fifth largest, 



