326 BULLETIN 17 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



scales following these before the gastrosteges; scale rows 29, smooth, 

 some of the vertebrals enlarged just anterior to the tail; ventrals 189; 

 anal entire; subcaudals 34, single. 



Dimensions: Head and body, 620 mm.; tail, 74 mm. 



Color in (alcohol): Head markings much faded in this specimen; 

 ground color of head and body ochraceous-buff, the under surface 

 slightly paler; a very distinct dark blotch on the edge of the mouth 

 extending from the second to the fourth upper labial; four rows of 

 maroon spots on each side of the body, the inner series the largest 

 and darkest; down each side of the ventral plates a row of dark 

 blotches two or three scales long usually confluent with the first 

 series of lateral spots, extending nearly to the middle of the belly, 

 sometimes alternating and sometimes opposite, with the interspaces 



Figure 94. — Tropidophis maculatus haetianus: a. Top of head; h, side of head; c, chin. 

 U.S.N.M. No. 10164, type, from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Two-thirds natural size. 



of light ground color between the blotches giving the whole ventral 

 surface a checkerboard appearance. Toward the tail only the middle 

 pair of dorsal blotches and the ventral blotches persist. 



In a less faded specimen (No. 64910) the head shows the following 

 pattern: Top of snout uniform dark slate color, bordered by a narrow 

 black line from in front of the eye to the internasals; rostral, nasals, 

 and upper labials abruptly pale; an elongate dark spot on the edge 

 of the mouth extending from the second to the fourth upper labial ; a 

 dark postocular streak fading to gray above and ending just behind 

 the corner of the mouth; a light crescentic mark on the upper tem- 

 poral region; the occipital region dark slate color. In this specimen, 

 as in some of the others, the dark ventral blotches extend over one 

 and a half to two ventral plates, so that there is a little less of the 

 dark color in proportion to the light interspace. This diminution 

 of dark pigment is in no way comparable to the occurrence of small 



