82 BULLETIN 15 4, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



area usually with a more or less widened, dull, yellowish streak, but 

 sometimes with an additional stripe or two; ground color of back 

 variable, usually blackish, brown, gray or olivaceous ; dorsal ground 

 color sometimes in distinct contrast to lateral ground color ; usually, 

 however, area between dorsal stripes lighter on account of suffusion 

 from the yollowish streak mentioned above; femora faintly reticu- 

 lated with white or unicolor. 



A series of 1,522 specimens has been studied, but the data given 

 below were taken from only 216 of them: Body, 27-82 mm.; tail, 

 45-164; total length, 72-246; width of head, 4.5-12.0; length of tail 

 as percentage of total length, 55.5-72.1 ; width of head as percentage 

 of body length, 11.1-17.7; supraoculars, 3 in 2 specimens, 4 in 205 

 specimens, and 5 in 9 specimens; supraocular granules extending 

 forward to the middle of the fourth supraocular in 13 specimens, to 

 the anterior border of the fourth supraocular in 165 specimens, and 

 to the middle of the third supraocular in 38 specimens; fronto- 

 parietals 2 in 195 specimens, 3 in 12 specimens, 4 in 7 specimens, and 

 5 in 2 specimens; preanals, 2 in 14 specimens, 3 in 102 specimens, 4 

 in 33 specimens, 5 in 3 specimens, 6 in 32 specimens, 7 in 6 specimens, 

 8 in 9 specimens, 9 in 8 specimens, 10 in 2 specimens, 11 in 2 speci- 

 mens, 12 in 4 specimens, and 13 in one specimen. Cope (1900) 

 mentioned that the three large anal plates are fused into one piece 

 in two specimens from Florida (U.S.N.M. No. 15336), but that all 

 other Florida specimens are " normal." 



Variation. — Perhaps the most significant variation found in sex- 

 llneatus is geographical. Brown (1903. p. 546) recognized the close 

 affinity with ferplexus and wrote as follows : " Two specimens from 

 Pecos do not differ materially from eastern examples, except in hav- 

 ing coarser dorsal scales, but four others, collected at Seymour, Tex., 

 have similarly coarse scales. The pale dorsal area shows a tendency 

 to contract and take on the form of a median stripe. All of the 

 differences are in the direction of G. fevflexus?'' The dorsal scales 

 are small and finely granular in examples from the Eastern United 

 States, but they are usuallj^ enlarged in the area west of the Missis- 

 sippi River and north of Texas. This coarse dorsal granulation 

 in the west serves as an approach to perplemis^ as indicated by 

 Brown. These subspecies are found to intergrade in the Panhandle 

 district. Much individual variation exists in regard to these granules 

 in all geographical areas and it seems that little more than an 

 average difference exists between the eastern and western specimens 

 in spite of appearances. The postantebrachium is usually covered 

 by small granules, having characteristically but a small patch of 

 slightly enlarged ones. The patch may be so reduced as to become 

 indistinguishable from the surrounding scales on the forearm or it 

 may be so developed as to take on the character of small polygons. 



