CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKEvS. 757 



muzzle; postnasal higher than preuawal shield; freual much loiifjer thau high; j)ari- 

 etals about half as much longer as the median frontal, which is about the length of 

 the muzzle. Supralabials eight, of which the fourth and fifth are in contact with 

 the eye; one anteorl)ital, two postorbitals, which are in contact with an elongate 

 temporal; two pairs of submentalia, of which the hindmost is perceptibly the 

 longest; ten infralabials, of which six are in contact with the submentals; gastro- 

 Hteges one hundred and fifty-five, one divided anal and one hundred and eight divided 

 urosteges, or 172 + 1 + 91" 



Gro md color brown. A broad longitudinal dark brown or black line covers the 

 three median dorsal rows and the half of each of the external rows in contact with 

 them, or, it is composed of three separate longitudinal stripes, of which the median 

 is bordered on either side by a series of small, obli<|ue streaks on the external border 

 of the median row of scales and the inner edges of the scales of the rows bordering 

 it on either side; on each side and continuous with the transverse rostral band, a 

 lateral, longitudinal black stripe passing through the eye to the end of the tail, 

 which is separated from the median dorsal line by two half, or one and two half 

 scales, the line itself two half scales wide, or descending to the third lateral row 

 and embracing two entire and almost two half rows. The brownish-yellow stripe 

 which separates the dorsal from the lateral stripes begins at the muzzle, interrupted 

 by the eye and passes backward along the external border of the parietals. Pos- 

 teriorly on the external «nds of the ventrals there is a black point, which form lat- 

 eral punctated lines on the anterior ventral side. Dirty yellow ventrally and on the 

 supralabials. 



Behind a series of shorter and nearly isodont teeth, separated by a diastema, 

 there follows a longer smooth tooth. 



Total length, 505 mm. ; head, 16 mm. ; tail, 177 mm. ; width of head, 85 mm. ; 

 width of body, 9 mm. : in another specimen : Total length, 325 mm. ; head, 12 mm.; 

 tail, 91 mm. 



The specimens which have couie under my observation have been of 

 the color variety in which the median brown dorsal band is represented 

 by three narrow stri})es, of which the median is the narrowest. One of 

 these came from the State of Puebhi and the two others from Zacual- 

 tipan (Hidalgo) from Dr. S. Bernard. It was on these tliat I proposed 

 the name R. quinquelineata. 



According' to Giinther this species is coimnon in the high lands of 

 Guerrero, and Boulenger gives it from Jalisco and the City of Mexico. 

 All of these localities are at an elevation of 8,000 feet or more. Duges 

 gives Guadalajara. 



From the stomach of a specimen from Zacualtipan I took an adult 

 Spelerpes leprosus. 



RHADIN^A DECORATA Gunther. 



Bhadinaa decorata Boulenger, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus., II, 1894, p. 176; syn- 

 onymy, not description. 



Coronelln decorata Gunther, Biol. Centr.-Amor., Rept., 1893, p. 111. 



Unicofpiathtis vittaius Jan, part. Arch. Zool. Anat. Phys., II, 1863, p. 271; Icon. 

 Gen. Ophid., 1866, pi. ii, fig. 2. 



There are two well-marked color varieties of this species which agree 

 in structural characters so far as I can see. They differ as follows: 



Yellow dorsolateral stripes continued to end of muzzle Ii. d. Ujnlta Cope. 



Yellow dorsolateral stjjpes broken into two distinct spots on temporal region. 



li. d. decorata Giinther. 



