CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 



1007 



faint light liue, wliicli makes tUe body appear as If striated. On the 

 outer rows this light line is broader, and it a])pears as a succession of 

 oblong spots. 



Cat. Nos. 



1962. 

 1876. 



Upper labials. Gastrostege.s. Urostejfi's. Scales. Length. Tail. 



7)1 wi. inm. 



6. 127 + 1. 25. 1.-). 215. 28. 



6. 125 + 1. 27. 15. 210. 28. 



Virginia raleria: liaird and Girard. 



VIRGINIA ELEGANS Kennicott. 



Virginia clegans Kexnicott, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1859, p. 99. — Cope, 

 Clieck-list N. Amer. Batr. Rept., 1875, p. 35.— Jax, Icon. Gen. Ophid., Ft. 12, 

 pi. II, fig. 6.— BorLEXGER, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus.. II, 1894, p. 289. 



Frontal plate hexagonal, elongated, anterior angle oj)en ; parietals ob- 

 long, exteriorly rounded. Post- 

 frontals irregularly angular, 

 produced into the orbit. Pre- 

 frontals subtriangular, propor- 

 tionally small. Rostral narrow, 

 and tapering upward. Nostrils 

 in the middle of the posterior 

 margin of the prenasal. Loreal 

 elongated, forming together 

 with the postfrontals, the an- 

 terior portion of the orbit. Eyes 

 small. Supraorbitals rather 

 large, oblong, elongated. Postorbitals two; angular, lower one 

 between the fourth and fifth labials. IMoutli deeply cleft. Upper 

 labials six, fifth largest; inferior labials six, fourth largest. Temporal 

 shields 1-2, well developed. Body slender, subcylindrical, tlattened 

 beneath ; tail very short, diminishing very rapidly toward its acute tip. 

 Dorsal scales narrow and elongated, more so than in V. Valeria'; dis- 

 posed in seventeen rows. 



Color uniform lightolivaceous brown above to pinkish and orange; dull 

 yellowish- white beneath. Tliere is generally an indistinct pale dorsal 

 band covering a width of one and two half rows of scales, and bounded 



Fig. 271. 



TiROINIA EI.EGANS KENNICOTT. 



X2. 



Dallas, Texas. 



Colleition of E. !). Cop.-. 



