AKT. 25 CHINESE AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES STEJNEGER 81 



three specimens from Mr. Sowerby, two collected at Tientsin and one 

 at Hangchow, Chekiang, consequently not far from the type local- 

 ity of the species. The scale formulas of these specimens are as fol- 

 lows : 



U. S. Nat. Mns. No. 52342, fem. ad., Tientsin, se. 21 ; v. 177 ; a. 2 ; c. 52 ; 1.7 ; 



e. 2-2 ; t. 2+3. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 52342, fem. ad., Tientsin, sc. 21 ; v. . . . ; a. 2 ; c. 57 ; 



1.7; oc. 1-2; t. 2+3. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 6G463, fem. ad., Hangchow, sc. 21 ; v. 176 ; a. 2 ; c. 52 ; 

 1.7 ; oc. 1-2 ; t. l+§. 



ELAPHE SCHRENCKII Strauch 



Synonymy in Herpetology of Japan, 1907, p. 313, to which add : 



Cohiher schrenckii Statvlev, .Tourn. N. China Asiat. Soc, vol. 45, 1914, p. 



28 (Manchuria, near Sungari Riv.). — Elaplie schrenekii Nikolski, Fauna 



Rossij, Kept., vol. 2, 1916, p. 141 (Khingan Mts., Ussuri, etc.). 

 1916. Coluber anomahis Boulenger, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, vol. 17, 



March, 1916, p. 243 (type locality, Chihfeng, N. E. Chili, China; type in 



Brit. Mus.; A. L. Hall, collector). 



Three specimens have been received from Mr. Sowerby of this 

 somewhat variable snake which apparently reaches a considerable 

 size. One of the specimens is an adolescent male taken in southern 

 Manchuria on the Yalu River about 180 miles from its mouth. Its 

 colors are dark and contrasted, the blackish pattern standing out 

 quite distinct, especially on the ventrals. The two adults, from the 

 Imperial Huntington Grounds in Chilili, 65 miles NE. of Peking, 

 are nearly uniform dark grajash brown above, with indication of 

 the blackish blotches near the posterior end, and pale underside with 

 indistinct brownish-gray mottling. The adolescent specimen lacks 

 the subpreocular on both sides and has a divided anal ; the adults 

 have the subpreocular, but in both the anal is single. 



From Chifeng, a locality due east from and not more distant than 

 65 miles from the Imperial Hunting Grounds, Boulenger has de- 

 scribed a single specimen as Coluber anomalus which he says can 

 only be compared with C. schrenckii but differs in the number of 

 upper labial shields (seven against eight in E. schrenckii), in the 

 subcaudals being mostly single, and in other points of minor im- 

 portance. In the Herpetology of Japan (p. 315) I have enumerated 

 one specimen, with seven labials on one side and eight on the 

 other, and one with six labials on one side and seven on the other. 

 With regard to the subcaudals I call attention to the fact that one 

 of Sowerby's Imperial Hunting Grounds specimens (No. 60849) 

 has about ten unpaired subcaudals, and also to Strauch's mention, 

 as a curious anomaly, of a similar condition found only in some east 

 Siberian and West Chinese specimens of E. dio7ie. It would there- 

 fore seem that the presence of unpaired subcaudals is more or less 

 of a local anomaly among members of the genus Elaphe in this 

 reirion. 



