76 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vor.. 66 



■ fl^ Scales feebly keeled on the back, smooth on the sides, in 17 i*ows 

 anteriorly and 15 around the middle of the body ; ventrals, 140 ; 

 subcaudals, 51 ; supralabials, S, with fine black lines at the sutures ; 

 belly with large brown spots anteriorly P. dorsalis. 



Accordingly, P. sinensis is like P. maci'ops in the number and keel- 

 ing of scales, but in number of ventrals and coloration it agrees with 

 P. dorsalis. It differs from both in the number of supralabials 

 being usually seven against eight in the other two. 



It will be noted that the characters assigned to P. max^rofs are de- 

 rived from 11 specimens from the Himalayas and Burma; that P. 

 dorsalis rests on one specimen presumably from the middle Yangtse ; 

 and that five specimens from Szechwan and Yunnan furnish the 

 scale formulas for P. siiicnsis. In addition to the latter Barbour has 

 recorded ^* two specimens, one from Laolingkung, westei-n Szech- 

 wan, at 10,300 feet altitude, and one from Yunnanfu, at 6,000 feet, 

 which " come within the range of variation which Boulenger cites 

 for the five previously published specimens ". Their ventrals there- 

 fore presumably fall w^ithin 144-158 with seven supralabials. 



In view of the above it is exceedingly puzzling to receive from Rev, 

 D. C. Graham a specimen (No. 66535) collected 50 miles west of Tat- 

 sienlu which structurally agrees with P. macrops but* in color 

 matches P. sine/nsis from the same region. Its scale formula is as 

 follows: sc. 19 (neck and middle, strongly keeled) ; v. 168; a. 2; subc. 

 74; 1. 8; oc. 1-3; t. 2+3. The coloration is quite characteristic with 

 heavy black sutures to the supralabials, a black chevron mark on the 

 nape, and no spots on the anterior portion of the belly. 



With 8 labials and 168 ventrals I do not feel at liberty to dissociate 

 this specimen from P. inacrops. On the other hand, witli the records 

 of 11 specimens of P. macrops showing a constant scale formula con- 

 comitant with a consistent geographic distribution and 7 specimens 

 of P. sinensis, equally constant and consistent, I do not feel justified 

 in reducing the latter to a synonym of the former. It may be, that in 

 the Tatsienlu region the two forms intergrade physically as well as 

 geographically. 



PSEUDOXENODON MACROPS SINENSIS (Boulenger) 



1892. Tropidonotns mncrnphthnlmus Guexther, in Pratt's To Snows of 



Tibet, p. 241 (Kiating fu, Szechwan; not of 1858). 

 1904. Pscndorciiodon sinoifii-s Boulenger. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (ser. 7). 



vol. 13, Feb. 1904. p. 134 (type-locality, Yunnan fu, Szechwan; types iu 



Brit. Mus ; J. Graham, collector). 



Since the account of Pseudoxemodon maerops was set in type, the 

 museum has received a specimen (No. 67816) collected by Rev. D. 

 C. Graham at Wenchwan, on the road to Sungpan, Szechwan, which 

 is typical P. sinensis in coloration and in the number of ventrals, 

 but with a larger number of subcaudals than recorded for tliis form 



«*Mem. Mus. Comp. ZoOl., vol. 40, no. 4, 1912, p. 131. 



