962 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



not as narrow as in some species, superciliaries much narrowed ante- 

 riorly. Parietals large, obliquely truncated by a large second temj)oral, 

 exceeding in length the muzzle in front of the frontal plate. Nasals 

 short auteroposteriorly, the anterior elevated and narrow; postnasal 



making a suture with prefrontal. 

 Loreal longer than high, very 

 oblique behind. Preocularone, 

 postoculars two ; suboculars two, 

 separating the orbit from the su- 

 perior labial plates. Temporals 

 one, three; the first long, bor- 

 dering two labials and a scute; 

 those of the second and third 

 rows not keeled. Middle of eye 

 above the fourth superior labial. 

 Superior labials eight, sixth and 

 seventh large, sixth twice as 

 high as wide. Inferior labials 

 tw'elve, the seventh largest. 

 Postgeneials shorter than i^re- 

 geneials. 



Color brown above and yel- 

 low below. On the upper sur- 

 faces there are on each side two 

 rows of alternating short cross- 

 bars of a darker color, which 

 are about one and one-half scales 

 wide, and are separated by in- 

 terspaces of about three scales. 

 The median line for a width of 

 four scales is not spotted, or is 

 very imperfectly so, forming a 

 broad vertebral band of a color 

 darker than the general ground. 

 In young specimens the pattern 

 is very distinctly seen, but in 

 adults the ground becomes so 

 dark as to obscure it very much. 

 The head is uniform brown, the oral edge of the superior labial plates 

 only being yellow. On the yellow ground of the inferior surfaces there 

 appear, on the anterior third only of the length, dark shades on the 

 anterior parts of the gastrosteges. These extend and blend so that on 

 the posterior two-thirds of the length in the adult the color may be said 

 to be blackish-brown with yellow^ spots. 



o ^ 



