168 BULLETIN 15 4, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The critical notes given below this key seem worthy of quotation 

 since they agree with what the writer has found after an examina- 

 tion of the same collection (Stanford University). 



" Seven specimens from Carmel Valley, Monterey County, Cali- 

 fornia, are all distinctly of the stejnegerl type, except one (3397), 

 which is young and in which the spots are few and small. This 

 great extension of the range led me to examine the others in the 

 collection. 



"A jar of specimens from Ontario, California, contains four 

 (3409, 3407, 3408, 3405) typical undulatus, one (3411) typical 

 steJ7iegeri, while four (3406, 3410, 3412, 3414) are intermediate, 

 although the}^ are nearer undulatus than the other form. 



"Mr. Heller obtained typical stepiegeri at Warren's Well and 

 L3'tle Creek, San Bernardino Mountains, San Bernardino County, 

 and Cuyamaca Mountains, San Diego County, California, wliile he 

 took typical undulatus at Lytle Creek, San Bernardino County, and 

 a small intermediate specimen from Riverside, California. 



"Mr. Coolidge took typical undulatus at Grapeland, altitude 

 about 2,000 feet, three miles west of San Bernardino, near Cajon 

 Wash, San Bernardino County, and another from the same locality, 

 with but a very few spots, and a third one from southern California, 

 from which unfortunately the tag has been lost. 



" The occurence of the white-throated form in the south and the 

 spotted-throated form in the north indicates that stejnegerl is but 

 a synonym of undulatus. We feel certain that future specimens 

 will add to our proof and confirm this beyond a doubt. 



" Indeed the variation of the spots on the sides of the head seen 

 in the northern specimens even lead one to suspicion the validity 

 of C. t. undidatus as a good subspecies. But the almost total ab- 

 sence of specimens in the collection from the range of G. tigris 

 prevents this matter being looked into more tlioroughly at present." 



Thus it is seen that as early as 1899, five years after the description 

 of stejnegerl^ serious doubt was cast upon the validity of that form, 

 and at the same time the distinctness of undulatus from tigris 

 { = tessellatus) of the Great Basin was openly questioned. If 

 McLain had examined two specimens from Santa Rosalia, Chihuahua 

 (U.S.N'.M. Nos. 47404-47405), he would no doubt have been still 

 further perplexed. Both of these are light below and while one 

 shows the gular spots and scutellation of stejnegerl, the other shows 

 the whiter throat and smaller scales of undidatus. 



It seems important that Cope (1900, p. 600) wrote that stejnegerl 

 does not seem to be very different from C. grahamd graliamii. The 

 likeness was held to be so great that, in spite of lack of proof of 

 intergradation in the extensive area between the two populations, 

 stejnegerl was listed as a subspecies of gvahamll and not of tessellatus.^ 



