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REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



The single small si)eciuien described above stauds quite outside the 

 wide range of variation of the G. hottw, presenting characters which 

 might be and have been considered to be of generic importance. The 

 separation of the prenasal, and absence of the loreal plates can not, 

 however, be so used in this group in my opinion. 



CHARINA BOTT^ Blainville. 



Charina hotke Gray, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mns., 1849, p. 113. — Cope, Check-list N. 



Am. Batr. Kept., 1875, p. 43. — Boulenger, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus., I, 1893, p. 130. 

 Tortrix hotta" Blaiuville, Nouv. Anm. Mus. Hist. Nat., Paris, III, 1834, p. 57. 

 TVenona 2)lumhca ct isahella Baird and Girahd, Cat. N. Amer. Kept., Pt. 1, Serp., 



1853, pp. 1.39, 140. 



Head short; crown Hat; muzzle prominent, blunt, rounded, depressed ; 

 frontals four transverse, band-like, hinder rather larger; frontal wider 



than long; angulate be- 

 hind, large; parietal very 

 small, oblique; in con- 

 tact with j)arietal; one 

 or no loreal, one anterior 

 larger and three posterior 

 smaller oculars; supercili- 

 CoJS^WS5®9 aries three or two ; small ; 

 rostral large convex de- 

 pressed, produced poste- 



CHAKixA B^oTTi'B,.A.Nv.Li.E. ^i^^ly abovc to au obtuse 



X 5. angle ; nostrils lateral 



(•■It. No. 89';?, U.S.N. M. II v. i 1. 



very small, between two 

 nasal plates, the upper confluent with the internasal and margining the 

 rostral; parietal band-like, undivided on the middle line. Eyes moder- 

 ate, surrounded by small scales or resting on labials; throat with small 

 scales; geneial shields small, with a distinct longitudinal gular fold; two 

 front upper labial shields large; rest smaller, lower; front lower labial 

 high, slender, hinder lower, small. Body elongate, cylindrical; scales 

 smooth, rhombic, imbricate, lower series largest, in from thirty-seven to 

 forty-five rows; ventral shields narrow, transverse; tail short, blunt at 

 the end; subcaudal plates narrow, six-sided, simple. 



The color varies from yellowish or olive brown above and yellow 

 below, to lead-colored above and dirty white below. No markings of 

 any kind. 



Cat. Nod. UppiT labials, (iastrostege.s. I'rosteges. Scales. Length. Tail 



iiiin. iinii . 



4494 9-10. 218. 35. 47. 600. 70. 



11789 10-11 . 208. 35. 45. 



11691 9-10. 20.5. 35. 42. 



The extraordinary variability of this species in the squamation of 

 the head may be exhibited in the following table: 



I. Internasals coiilhiciit with prefrontals. 



Loreal present ; eye resting on labials Cat. No. 4496 



