396 REPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



If the width above. The hind feet are leugtheiied, the free i>ortion of 

 longest toe being equal to or hmger than the head above. The cephalic 

 plates are all perfectly smooth, the anterior ones finely punctured round 

 the circumference. The frontal is longitudinally divided. The inter- 

 parietal is large and subquadrate or pentagonal and pointed anteriorly. 

 There are two or three parietals on each side and a pair in contact 

 anterior to this, then 1, 2, 3, 3 with three others to the plates surrounding 

 the nostrils Avith four suf)ranasals. The j)lates on the snout are so 

 disposed anterior to the single internasal as to form a pentagon of five 

 around a smaller. There are six transverse supraocular plates, with 

 one internal and two external series, the latter sometimes indistinct. 



The scales on the body are all very small, at least eighty or more 

 encircling the body. They are not very acute, distinctly keeled above 

 and on sides, Avith moderate scarcely projecting mucro. No lateral 

 denticulations can be observed; the belly scales, however, are faintly 

 notched. The scales on the «ides are much smaller than those on the 

 back, especially on the side of neck and above shoulders, where they 

 are almost paved and tubercular, not imbricate. 



The upper parts in the male are greenish olive, mottled irregularly 

 with small blackish blotches, in which no serial arrangement can be 

 observed. On each side of the back is a light-greenish line, the two sep- 

 arated by about eighteen rows of scales, exhibiting as many lines of 

 carination nearly parallel to each other. Below this there is no distinct 

 oblique serial arrangement of carinated scales, except midway between 

 fore and hind legs. The sides immediately below the light stripe are 

 abruptly bluish black, bordered posteriorly below by a well-defined 

 white stripe passing obliquely upward and forward from the groin half 

 way to the axilla, and then broken up the rest of the distance into a 

 series of obsolete light mottlings and sj^ots. Below this light space is 

 an indigo patch on each side of the belly, quite obsolete and indistinct 

 centrally and interiorly, where there is an interval of eight or ten 

 scales and no black inner margin, as in variahilis. The sides of the 

 neck are deep indigo, with a distinct whitish band from the lateral 

 stripe peri)endicular to the insertion of the arm. Anterior to this is 

 an angular light sj)ot on the center of an indigo subcircular patch, 

 bounded above and behind by the light lines mentioned, below by one 

 or two yellowish spots. Anteriorly the sides of the neck are mottled 

 with light spots and a yellowish horizontal line from the gape of the 

 mouth. The sides of the jaws are crossed iierpendicularly by five or 

 six narrow light lines, which, on the chin, pass obliquely backward, so 

 as, with their fellows, to form a series of indistinct and interrupted Vs, 

 the intervals being blue. On the point of the chin, however, the whit- 

 ish predominates. The posterior face of the thigh (covered with paved 

 scales) is indigo, with a light stripe. The legs are banded transversely 

 with dusky bluish. 



This is the most highly varied of all the North American Scelopori, 



