CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 

 Chionactis episcopus episcopua Kennicott. 



939 



I have also numerous specimens from West Texas from between Fort 

 Worth and Fort Concho on the north to San Antonio on the south. 

 Twelve of the.se are from the Wichita River and were collected by- 

 Jacob Boll. Of these, seven are normal, three have no loreal on one 

 side, and one has no loreal on both sides; one has two temporals of the 

 anterior row instead of one. A si)ecimen from a more western locality, 

 San Angelo, Texas, is anomalous in having no loreals, and in having 

 the two postoculars fused into one on both sides. 



CHIONACTIS EPISCOPUS TORQUATUS Cope. 



Contia episcopa torquata CoPE, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 20, 1880, p. 21. 

 Contia torquata Boilengeii, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus., II, 189-1, p. 266. 



Light yellowish brown above, with a median undehned orange band. 

 Top of head (rom anterior part of frontal plate to near posterior border 

 of parietals black. A black half collar behind the parietal plates 

 extending to the third row of scales on each side, exclusive. 



In one specimen the third and fourth rows of scales black at their 

 bases, forming a double lateral stripe, extending from the end of the 

 half collar to beyond the middle of the body. In a second specimen 

 these lines are absent. Lips and below, immaculate. Gastrosteges 

 one hundred and forty-three; anal divided; urosteges thirty-eight. 



I have but two specimens of this variety, of which one is known to 

 be from northwestern Texas, and the other of uncertain locality, but 

 l)robably from the same region. In the smaller, the third superior labial 

 is almost excluded from the orbit; in the latter it has the usual share. 

 In the latter also the top of the head is brown, as is often the case in 

 the usual variety. 



Boulenger has regarded this species as distinct in consequence of my 

 ascription of 183 gastrosteges to it. This number, which appears in 

 my original description, is a typographical error for 143. 



CHIONACTIS EPISCOPUS ISOZONUS Cope. 



Contia episcopa torquata Copk, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 20, 1880, p. 21; Amer. 



Nat', XXX, 1890, p. 1015. 

 Contia isozona Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sol. Phila., 1866, p. 304. — Report U. S. 



Geog. Surv. W. of lOOtli Mer., V, p. 537, pi. xviii, figs. 1, la. — Boui.enger, 



Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus., II, 1894, p. 26t). 



Two postoculars; six rows of gular scales. Kostral rounded, slightly 

 jjroduced backwards. Scuta lo8|, 52. Twenty black half rings, sepa- 

 rated by equal spaces of pinkish ground color. 



