THE HERPETOLOGY OF HISPANIOLA 215 



stripe as well, while all that remains of the juvenile barred coloration 

 is the group of four or five chevrons across the nuchal region. In a 

 young male, U.S.N. M. No. 80765, the traces of the bars are faintly 

 discernible the entire length of the body, and appear on the tail as 

 definite crossbars. This young specimen shows the transition coloring 

 equally well about the head, as the posterior throat and chest still has 

 pale remnants of spots, while the fusion of spots and concentration of 

 pigment is already beginning on the edges of the jaws and on the side 

 of the head. Cope's trigeminatus was described probably from a 

 female specunen. U.S.N. M. No. 80763, a female apparently quite 

 typical as to coloration, has four longitudinal stripes, as did Cope's 

 type— a dorsolateral and a lateral on each side. From occiput well 

 onto the tail occurs a series of black bars, sometimes chevron-shaped, 

 sometimes broken in the midhne. Between the dorsolateral and 

 lateral hght strips there is a wide brown area with many diagonal 

 black more or less irregular markings corresponding in general to the 

 dorsal chevrons. The whole ventral surface is heavily spotted with 

 black, including the limbs, tail, and chin, the spots becoming smaller 

 on the sides and somewhat lighter on the tail. Those on the chin and 

 throat are never arranged in regular transveise series, as is the case in 

 beatanus. The head is brown above with small dark spots intermit- 

 tently bordering the head plates, as in the males. The largest female 

 of which J have record measures 54 mm. from snout to vent, small as 

 compared to the largest male which is 77 mm. 



The very youngest specimens display a highly comphcated pattern 

 quite dissimilar to that of the adult males. The lateral and dorso- 

 lateral light stripes are in evidence but fade out anteriorly so that the 

 sides of the head in front of the eyes are light, while scattered black 

 spots appear on the throat and pale gray markings on the labial sutures. 



The dorsal chevrons number about 16 (sometimes one or two more or 

 less) from the occiput to the base of the taO, but there is a decided 

 tendency in alternate chevrons to lose their distinctness, appearing 

 only as a series of dark spots bordering the dorsolateral stripe between 

 the outer ends of the remaining seven or eight chevrons, which retain 

 their distinctness in most of the females. The males, on the contrary, 

 lose practically all of the body pattern except for a few black scales on 

 the nuchal region where the first three chevrons used to be. 



The ventral surface in females and young is heavily spotted with 

 black. Relatively large, roundish spots arranged in fairly regular 

 longitudinal series occur at least on the chest and more or less irregu- 

 larly on the throat. On the beUy much smaller and more elongate 

 spots tend to be arranged in slightly oblique transverse series merg- 

 ing laterally into the dark area below the lateral light line and still 

 showing some influence of the longitudinal occurrence. The lower 

 surface of the limbs is heavily spotted in the young, while the pos- 



