CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 



811 



to the fifth. The muzzle is more elou^ate, hence also the nasal and 

 loreal plates and the penultimate and ultimate superior labials are 

 longer. The tendency of the coloration is to produce two series of 

 alternating yellow and black spots along the anterior part of the length. 

 The narrower form of the posterior superior labials distinguishes the 

 type from most individuals of the Z. lateralis lateralis, but in a specimen 

 of the latter from Baird, California, these scales approximate nearly 

 the form in the present subspecies. 



According to Mr. Van Denburgh this species is quite rare, the 

 explorations of the California Academy of Sciences having brought to 

 light only one other specimen. 



ZAMENIS SCHOTTII Baird and Girard. 



Maaticophis schottii Baird and Girard, Cat. N. Amer. Rept., Pt. 1, Serpents, 1853, 

 p. 160.— Baird, U. S. Mex. Bound. Surv., II, Reptiles, 1859, p. 20, pi. xviii. 



Head elongate, narrow, the muzzle projecting but not decurved. 

 Inferior labials eight; temporals 2-2-2. Frontal narrow posteriorly, 

 but not so much so as in 

 Z. lateralis, being about 

 three-fourths the diam- 

 eter of the supercili- 

 aries at the same point. 

 Scales in fifteen rows. 

 Tail long, entering the 

 total length three and a 

 half times. 



The general tint above 

 is a dark greenish olive. 

 On each side are two 

 well-defined narrow yel- 

 lowish-white lines; the 

 first along the junction 

 of the outer dorsal row and the abdominal scutelLne, involving only the 

 adjacent angles; the second similiarly constituted in relation to the 

 third and fourth rows (not running tlnongh the centers of the scales). 

 The portion of the third and fourth rows not involved by the upper 

 white line is black, as is also a narrow margin above the lower white 

 line, of the same diameter with it. The upper angles of the scales in 

 the first row, and the whole of those of the second row, are of a lighter 

 olive than the back. All the scales on the back between the upper 



Fig. 180. 

 Zamenis schottii Baird and Girakd. 



Eagle Pass, Texas. 



Cat. No. 1972, U.S.N. M. 



