CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 



897 



five or six scales. Anteriorly their intervals are eight or nine scales 

 long, posteriorly somewhat less. The black rings, as they descend on 

 the sides, separate somewhat, so as to leave an interval of about three 

 scales; they are also somewhat narrower than above. On the abdomen 

 they are generally interrupted, the corresponding ends of the same 

 ring sometimes meeting and sometimes alternating. The posterior 

 black ring of the first pair does not continue under the throat. The 

 anterior black ring of the first pair crosses the posterior part of the 

 occipitals, extending across between the angles of the mouth. The head 

 in front of this is black, except the end of the muzzle and the adjacent 

 labial plates, which are red. The narrow spaces between the black 

 rings are dusted with black. The posterior edges of the labials are 

 black. 



Fig. 220. 



Osceola doliata coccinea Schleoel. 



X ].5. 



In a second smaller specimen from Mississipj)i there are seventeen 

 pairs of rings to the anus, and four on the tail. The whole head is 

 black, the first yellow interval beginning joist back of the occipitals. 



Cat. Kos. 



2305. 

 5282. 



Upper labials. Gastrostege.s. Scales, drostegcs. Leugth. Tail. 



mm. mm. 



7. 204. 21. 38. 432. 58. 



7. 189. 21. 52. 476. 73. 



Fourteen specimens fall within the above definition of this sub- 

 species. But some of these present slight anomalies. Thus Cat. No. 0069 

 has but one temporal on one side. Three other specimens are more 

 peculiar. Cat. iS^o. 2299 has the front reddish, with a small, yellow, brown- 

 edged spot on the common suture of the parietals, which foreshadows 

 the median spot or chevron of the 0. d. triangula. Of Cat. No. 2312, from 

 northern Louisiana, one has but one temporal on one side, and the 

 superior temporal very narrow in the other; and in both the face is red 

 and the muzzle prominent and depressed, as in Osceola elapsoidea. In 

 one of them the loreal is wanting from both sides, while in the other it 

 is present on both sides. These specimens are annectent to the sjiecies 

 above named. 



NAT MUS 98 57 



