26 BULLETIN 17 5, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Scaillure. — ficailles: 27 rangdes longitudinales au tronc, 8 ^ la queue. Scutel- 

 les: 2 gulaires, 233 gastrosteges, 1 anale non divis^e, 67 urosteges divis^es. 



Dents. — Coloration: Les notes que Bibron avait sans doutes prises sur les 

 particularit6s du systeme dentaire et sur les couleurs n'ayant point et6 trouv^es 

 dans le petit nombre de feuillets manuscrits qu'il avait laiss6s sur le grand genre 

 filaphe, il nous est malheureusement impossible de completer ce qui manque k 

 cette description, puisque I'filaphe de Deppe a 616 rendu au Mus6e de Leyde qui 

 I'avait envoys en communication au Musee de Paris. 



Dimensions. — La tete a en longueur une fois et deux tiers sa largeur prise vers 

 le milieu des tempes, largeur qui est triple de celle du museau, en avant des narines. 

 Les yeux ont leur diainetre longitudinal egal 5. la moiti6 de I'espace sus-inter- 

 orbitaire. Le tronc est d'environ un tiers plus et 58 fois aussi long qu'il est large 

 k sa partie moyenne. La queue entre ou moins pour un septieme dans la longueur 

 totale. Le sujet qui nous oflFre ces diverses proportions est long de 1™ 658 du 

 bout du pauseau a I'extr^mit^ de la queue, soit; Tete, long. O" 048. Queue, 

 long. O" 23. 



Patrie. — Le Mus6e de Leyde, a qui appartient ce Serpent, I'a regu du Mexique. 



Observations. — II nous a 6t<5 envoy6 en communication par M. Schlegel, sous le 

 nom de Coluber Deppei, adopt6 dans le Mus^e d'histoire naturelle de Berlin. 



Systematic notes. — Although the name pleurostictus has priority 

 over the name deppei by page precedence, the descriptions of both 

 appearing within a few pages of each other in Dumeril and Bibron's 

 "Erpetologie Generale" (1854, pp. 244, 268), the name deppei has 

 been most generally used. It is accepted by Giinther (1894, p. 124), 

 who says; "I select the term deppii for this species in preference to 

 pleurostictus, because the locality for the latter specimen has been 

 erroneously given as 'Monte Video,' the difficulty of recognizing the 

 species having been thus unduly increased." It must therefore be 

 retained. 



Cope, in 1891 (p. 157), proposed a new genus, Epiglottophis, includ- 

 ing deppei and lineaticollis and based on the character of the epiglottis. 

 Of this structure Cope says: 



Dr. Chas. A. White describes the epiglottis of the pine-snakes (Pityophis), 

 and figures it as it appears in the P. sayi bellona, B. and G. He shows that instead 

 of having the horizontal form found in the higher Vertebrata it is a vertical lamina 

 standing erect in front of the rima glottidis. He states that he has found it in all 

 of the species of Pityophis, but that it is wanting in all other serpents which he 

 has examined. * * * j have found it well developed in the four species of 

 Pitj'ophis, and in the two Mexican snakes which I have enumerated under Spilotes; 

 the <S. deppei D. and B., and the S. lineaticollis Cope. It is, however, wanting in 

 Spilotes proper, and curiously in the Rhinechis elegans, which is otherwise a good 

 deal like Pityophis. It is not present in any other American snakes, harmless or 

 venomous. It appears to me to be a character of generic importance, so I propose 

 to separate the two Mexican snakes referred to from Spilotes on account of its 

 presence under the name of Epiglottophis, with E. deppei as the type. 



It is to be expected that the forms included in "Epiglottophis," 

 being true Pituophis, would show the structure of the epiglottis 

 typical of the other forms of Pituophis. Thus, Cope's genus has 

 never been accepted by other authors. 



