938 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



CHIONACTIS EPISCOPUS EPISCOPUS Kennicott. 



Contia episcopa episcopa Cope, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 17, 1880, p. 21. 

 Lamprosoma episcojmm Kenxicott, U. S. Mex. Bound. Surv., II, Reptiles, 1859, p. 



22, pi. VIII, fig. 2. 

 Homalosoma ejnscopum Jan, Icon. G6n. Opbid., Pt. 13, pi. iv, fig. 2. 



Form rather stout, tapering very little toward the neck, which is 

 not niucli narrower than the head, and moderately tapering toward 

 the tail. The tail forms about one-fifth of the total length. Head rather 

 depressed; crown flattened iwsteriorly. Snout broad, rounded, and 

 depressed. Frontal a third longer than wide ; scarcely tapering behind ; 

 acute posteriorly, and usually slightly concave on the sides. Suporcil- 

 iaries and parietals short and narrow. iTasal elongated; nostril very 



small in the center of the plate. 

 Loreal elongated; not half as 

 large as the anteorbital, which is 

 itself small and vertically elon- 

 gated. Postorbitals of nearly 

 equal size. Temporals, 1-2. Ros- 

 tral subpentagonal ; the npex 

 acute and turned back upon tlie 

 crown, entering slightly between 

 the prefrontals. Seven upper 

 labials; fourth, fifth, and sixth 

 largest and nearly equal in size, seventh very small. Lower labials 

 seven; the fourth very much the largest. The dorsal scales in fifteen 

 rows; they increase regularly in size from the central rows, which are 

 much the smallest, to the first lateral row, which is higher than long. 

 The color of the entire upper parts of head and body is uniform light 

 olive brown tinged with green, but on close inspection each scale is 

 seen to be very minutely mottled with black toward the center, and 

 upon stretching the skin the base of each scale is black. A rose-colored 

 vertebral stripe in life. The abdomen is uniform whitish green. In a 

 specimen from Eio Seco the exposed base of each scale is black, giving 

 the body somewhat of an indistinctly mottled appearance even when 

 the skin is not stretched. The colors become lighter after soaking long 

 in alcohol, and the black at the bases of the scales becomes more or 

 less effaced. 



Cat. No. 2042; upper labials, 7; rows of scales, 15. 



Fig. 2;i8 



CH13NACT1S EPISCOPUS EPISCOPUS KENNICOTT. 



X 1.5. 



Wichita River, Texas. 



Collectjon of E. D. Cope. 



