CKOCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES, 271 



imbricated oblique, as in the allied genera IloJhroolia. There are seven 

 large oblique upper labials. The i)lates margining the lower labials 

 behind are decidedly larger than those on the cheeks. There are about 

 180 oblicjue series of scales from head to above anus, arranged in rather 

 irregular oblique series. The tail is rather longer than the body, much 

 depressed and flattened to the extreme tij), and tapering regularly from 

 near the base. The hind feet are nearly or quite half the head and body, 

 the free portion of longest toe nearly twice the length of cephalic plates. 

 There are 14 or 15 femoral pores. 



The colors and markings of this species are quite similar to those of 

 Holbroolia texana. The ground color in the type si>ecimen is a pale 

 yellowish gray, with ten series of dull blotches on the lower part of the 

 back, becoming confluent on the tail and encircling this as a series of five 

 or six rings, which are intensely black beneath. The five more anterior 

 ones are blotches beneath, not spots. The most of the back and sides 

 is uniformly and rather finely marked with apijroximated rounded 

 lighter spots. The legs are banded transversely with dusky. The 

 under parts are yellowish white; the whole posterior face of the thigh 

 similar, with a distinct stripe of dark plumbeous, bounded above by a 

 yellowish line, part of the ground color. In Holbroolia this line is 

 bordered immediately above by the ashy gray of the upper ground 

 color. 



In the male there is a blue i)atch on each .side of the belly (sep- 

 arated by twelve or fourteen scales) and not extending on the colored 

 part of the sides. In this are situated two indigo-black patches on each 

 side; subtriangular, broadest and truncate at the base inferiorly, and 

 running obliipiely forward and uj^ward. The hinder one (the largest) 

 has the posterior and inferior angle extended backward, so as to consti- 

 tute a kind of crescent, with the aiitero-inferior face an obtuse isosceles 

 angle, the i)ostero-superior a regular concavity. These two marks on 

 each side occupy about the middle of the space between the fore and 

 hind legs. The anterior runs rather farther up on the sides than the 



posterior. 



Oat. No. 4121 differs in having the ground color darker; the back with 

 ten series of distinct dorsal blotches, about ten from head to above anus. 

 The light spots are scarcely appreciable above, more so on the sides, 

 where they show traces of having been reddish. The posterior augle 

 of the hinder black blotch is much extended, reaching nearly to the 

 groin and much longer than the anterior angle. The head beneath is 

 light plumbeous and, with the jaws, varied with bluish. 



In life it is probable that there is a good deal of red on the sides and 

 back. 



The female lacks the blue on the side of belly, and but faint indica- 

 tion, if any, of the black marks. There is a tendency to a series of dusky 

 subquadratic blotches on the sides, more than in the male, and extend- 

 ing along the side of the tail. There are in some specimens oblique 



