CROCODILIAN.S, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES, 241) 



between tlie middle orbits, and about seven between their anterior 

 extremities; about six between the nostrils. Infraorbital i)lates nearly 

 equal in a chain of about eight. Scales on anterior border of ear sub- 

 acutely tubercular, i)rominent. Sometimes two scales of the suborbital 

 series are fused, as in the specimen figured. Scales of gular fold as 

 large as those between the forelegs. Scales on belly subhexagoual and 

 imbricated; on the back smaller, rounded, tubercular, and not larger 

 along the median line. Femoral pores about twenty-two. Scales on the 

 under surfjice of hands and feet larger, cons|)icuously carinated and 

 mucronate; on the hinder part of the tail moderately so; elsewhere 

 the scales smooth. Upper parts of a variable shade of dark green or 

 bluish; the thighs, back, and sides marked pretty regularly and 

 closely with rounded or oblong light s})ots, which on the lower part 

 of back and tail above exhibit a tendency to traimverse light bands. 

 The upper part and sides of head, the tibia, and tail marked with 

 similar dark spots. Two half rings of black, extending across the 

 back between the insertion of the fore legs, each bordered bj'- yellow- 

 ish. Under parts yellowish-white, tinged in specimens with greenish, 

 especially between the fore legs; the chin and throat green or blue (some- 

 times nearly black), and <]uite regularly reticulated with yellowish. 



The double black half collars are very constant; sometimes the 

 anterior is interrupted above and the branches extended forward; this 

 also seen sometimes in the posterior one. Both begin on the shoulders, 

 and are seldom, if ever, connected below. 



The colors of this species vary exceedingly. In life the light spots, 

 especially in young specimens, are of various shades of red, orange, 

 yellow, white. In the young the light dorsal spots exhibit a great tend 

 ency to arrangement in transverse bands, more or less continuous. The 

 embryonic coloration appears to be a reticulation on the back and sides 

 of grayish or light ashy, the meshes rather large, and inclosing black- 

 ish rounded, scarcely polygonal spaces, arranged transversely; the 

 back, with a succession of whitish (or perhaps reddish) bars at inter- 

 vals. Of these there are about ten from head to tail, while on the tail 

 they are much closer and even more regular, forming some forty to fifty 

 half rings. The black collars, and the blue and yellowish reticulations 

 on the chin are very distinctly marked. The light caudal rings are 

 scarcely ever visible in the adult (where, on the contrary, the darker 

 interspaces become more prominent) and but rarely the light dorsal 

 bands; the light reticulation of the back becomes broken up with 

 the light spots already mentioned. 



Sometimes the ground color is much lighter than that described, the 

 under parts being quite puie whitish in alcohol, the upper light ashy 

 olive. 



In one specimen (Cat. No. 1^721), the throat, upper part of breast, and 

 the flanks are indigo black, very strongly marked. The tail appears 

 unusually compressed. 



