232 BULLETIN 17 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



remainder of the throat and chest very heavily spotted with large 

 brown spots in about a dozen transverse series; sides of head nearly 

 immaculate or more or less heavily spotted or striped with sepia, the 

 infraocular region usually pale; in adult males usually three crescen tic 

 sepia markings in front of the shoulder, the two posterior ones the 

 largest and corresponding to the hollows behind the skinfolds oc- 

 curring between ear and shoulder; prefrontals not touching the can- 

 thals; 23-28 lamellae on the fourth toe; hindleg adpressed reaches to 

 between ear and eye; 57-68 scales between the occiput and the tail, 

 not highly mucronate or noticeably bristling. 



"Description. — Head shields enlarged, the posterior distinctly ridged, 

 the anterior nearly smooth; three scales (an internasal and 2 prefrontals) 

 between the rostral and the supraorbital ring; posterior prefrontals 

 much the larger; nasals in contact with rostral ; internasals somewhat 

 elongate, broadly in contact with each other; prefrontals separated 

 from the canthals by a series of about four small scales; two heavy 

 rounded can thai scales followed by three long and narrow superciliaries 

 and two small terminal ones; six distinctly ridged supraoculars sepa- 

 rated from the superciliaries by one row of small keeled scales anteriorly 

 and posteriorly, with two rows between them in the middle of the 

 series, and from the frontals by a single row; occipital small, bordered 

 by two distinct pairs of parietals on each side, the inner about four 

 times the size of the occipital and a little larger than the outer; an 

 enlarged latero-nuchal scale beyond the outer parietal which is almost 

 two-thirds its area; four upper and five lower labials to a point below 

 the center of the eye; temporal scales increasing gradually in size, the 

 last one, just above and in front of the ear, the largest and most con- 

 spicuous; anterior border of the ear with five coarse projecting scales, 

 the middle ones the largest. Nuchal scales rather small; dorsal scales 

 large, imbricate and moderately mucronate; laterals only slightly 

 smaller than the dorsals; ventrals slightly larger than the dorsals, 

 smooth, their posterior edges slightly denticulate; about 50 scales 

 around the middle of the body; about 66 scales from the occiput to a 

 point directly above the vent; about 17 dorsal scales the equivalent of 

 the distance from snout to occiput; nuchal scales small, those on the 

 sides of the neck like the dorsals but smaller, those behind the ear 

 very small, keeled and imbricate, not granular. Shoulder folds pres- 

 ent, very distinct; no lateral folds. The adpressed hind limb reaches 

 to the posterior border of the eye. Digits compressed; the fourth 

 toe with 28 tricarinate lamellae. A distmct crest beginning on the 

 occiput increasingly developed on the back and prominent on the 

 proximal part of the tail, then decreasing distally; the other caudal 

 scales keeled and mucronate; no verticils. The keels of the lateral 

 and dorsal scales are directed upwards and backwards so that the 



