868 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



four in the first row. Uj^per labials eight, seventh largest, fourth com- 

 ing into the orbit. Lower labials fourteen, fifth and. sixth largest, the 

 five posterior ones quite small. Posterior pair of mental shields one- 

 third of the size of the anterior pair, and reaching backward to opposite 

 the middle of the lower sixth labial. Tail conical and tapering, forming 

 about the seventh of the total length. 



The ground color, when living, is white; as preserved in alcohol it is 

 light yellowish brown. The head is spotted in the young with black 



Fig. 203. 



PiTYOPHIS MELANOLKUCUS DaUOIN. 



= 1. 



CoUectioD of E. D. Cope. 



spots, but nearly white in the adult ', frontal bar rather wide ; |)ostocular 

 vitta broad in the young, but wanting in the adult. A dorsal series of 

 very large blotches, of a deep chestnut-brown, broadly margined with 

 black anteriorly and posteriorly. These blotches are twenty-four in 

 number from the head to opposite the anus, and six on the tail, where 

 they extend laterally down to the subcaudal scutelhe. More or less 

 confluent, and consequently irregular in shape on the anterior third of 

 the body, they are posteriorly subround or subquadrate, emarginated 

 in front and behind, and separated from each other by a light spiice 



