266 BARBOUR: ZOOGEOGRAPHY. 



Color, in alcohol, light gray-brown, with many darker spots scattered 

 irregularly over the whole dorsal area; some cover a single scale; others are 

 composed of several dark scales juxtaposed. On the tail the spots average 

 larger than on the body. Below, minutely speckled with dark brown upon a 

 lighter field, throat and upper neck heavily spotted with dark brown marking 

 but little smaller than those of the dorsal area. Under svu-face of tail much more 

 heavily speckled than belly. 



The two Puerto Plata specimens have darker spots merged into lines above 

 and also lighter spots. On the shoulders of one are two enlarged white spots 

 with a black mark between, as often seen in S. grandisquamis. In the other, no 

 other such mark is evident; but the three dark lines run forward, one to each 

 eye and one to the nape region. These two specimens also vary slightly from 

 the type and from one another in the size of the dorsal scales. In one they are a 

 little larger than in the type ; in the other, slightly smaller ; this is the one with 

 the white and black shoulder mark. These two are from Puerto Plata, San 

 Domingo (M. C. Z., No. 5,444). The fourth specimen has a narrow head, more 

 narrow than that of any of the others. At first I thought it represented a dis- 

 tinct species, but artificial distortion due to capture or preservation may be 

 responsible for the difference noted. In its other features it is the same, except 

 that it has smaller dorsal scales, hke the second specimen mentioned from Puerto 

 Plata. It resembles this example also somewhat in coloration, — immaculate 

 below; faint longitudinal lines on the back, three passing forward to the eyes and 

 neck; a spectacle-like marking on the shoulders and another faint one on the 

 sacral region (M. C. Z., No. 7,835). 



More material is needed before it can be definitely settled whether all these 

 specimens represent one species; but I tliink they do, and that this species is 

 simply unusually variable in coloration and in the size of the dorsal scales. 

 Almost, if not quite, as great variation in coloration, and that strikingly similar, 

 too, has been described by Stejneger for S. grandisquamis of Porto Rico. This 

 new species seems more or less to connect S. grandisquamis and its allies with 

 the group to which .S. notatus is related. It also stands between these groups in 

 geographical position. 



Mr. Mann's recent collection contains an example from Grand Riviere, 

 Haiti which I place with this species. 



