CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 327 



hind foot is not one tliiid the head and body. The, free part of longest 

 toe reaches to the end of hirge occipital from the snout. The claws are 

 short. 



The prevailing color of this species above is a light yellowish gray or 

 ash, occasionally with a pale reddish tinge. The sides (to the belly) 

 are marked transversely with narrow well-defined blackish lines or 

 vertical bars, those of o])posite sides separated along the back by the 

 central three or four largo scales, and their upper end sometimes ex- 

 tended with short longitudinal lines. There is an occasional tendency 

 to anastomoses of adjacent lines. Six or eight of these lines may be 

 counted between the legs and anterior to the forearm. Starting on 

 the shoulder is another, more distinct, forming a distinct cervical lat- 

 eral band. There is a pale border to some of these bars, especially to 

 the cervical one. The shoulder shows the dark lines. On the sides 

 and back of the neck and sides of the head are numerous alternating- 

 faint white and brown longitudinal lines. The under parts, including 

 the vent, are whitish, quite conspicuously marked with small s[)Ots and 

 short, generally longitudinal, lines of dark gray, formed by minute dots 

 on the scales. In the male there is a large light-blue patch on each 

 side of the belly extending from fore to hind leg, becoming more 

 intense anteriorly, the two separated on the middle line by from one 

 to three rows of scales. These patches and the adjacent sides are 

 distinctly and closely spotted with white, arranged so systematically 

 as posteriorly to have the ai)pearance of occupying the meshes of a 

 network of ])lumbeous gray, tinged more or less with blue. There is 

 little or no trace of blue on the chin, where the gray lines exhibit a 

 tendency to anastomoses. There are indistinct transverse bands on 

 the tail (interrupted below). The legs are also banded transversely. 



The female lacks the blue of the belly, and exhibits an interrupted 

 dusky stripe on the sides, in continuation of one beginning back of 

 the eye and running along the upper edge of the ear. 



There is little difference in form between this species and ornattij 

 except in the more elongated body and longer tail. The lengthening of 

 the head is accompanied by an increase in the number of cephalic plates. 

 Thus the occipitals are more extensively margined behind, having two 

 or three more of small plates instead of one. There is also a greater 

 number anterior to the central verticals, although these vary a good 

 deal. There are, in general, where the symmetry of arrangement is 

 in-eserved, five transverse series to the internasals (which make six). 

 Some si)ecimeus, however, are scarcely different from ornata in this 

 respect. The tail is nuich longer, being two and one-half times instead 

 of one and one-half times the head and body. The dorsal large scales 

 are more regular, having no small ones interspersed. 



The colors are lighter; the lateral bands narrower; the blue of the 

 belly better defined and ligliter, also more conspicuously spotted with 

 white behind. 



