CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 



1019 



the E. sirtalis aud E. elegans iu scale formula'. The E. leptocephala 

 appears quite distinct from the southern west coast forms, but it has 

 melanistic phases which resemble melauistic forms of the E. nirtalis 

 from the northwest coast in Washington, such as E. s. piclceringii. 



The colors of the young atford some clew to the order of probable 

 appearance of color marks in the adults. As already remarked by 

 Baird aud Girard, the spots are more distinct in the young than in 

 adults, both as to isolation from each other and in distinctness of color. 

 When spots disa])pear and are rei)laced by a uniform tint, both lighter 

 {E. elegans vagrans) and darker {E. elegans Uneolata and E. sirtalis 

 ohscura), the change first appears on the posterior part of the body. 

 The tendency to form cross- bars or spots appears first on the anterior 

 I)art of the body. This is slightly developed in the E. sirtalis semifas- 

 ciata but extends throughout the greater part of the length in the 

 E. phenav. In species in which the top of the head is pale, as E. ele- 

 gans vagrans, it is very dark or black in the young. This dark color is 

 paler also in the E. e. couch ii, and in the E, e. marciana, but leaves its 

 posterior portion as a pair of large black nuchal spots. 



EUTiENIA SACKENII Kennicott. 



Sci. Phila., 1859, p. 98.— Cope, 

 Cope, Proc U. S. Nat. ilus., XI, 



Eiitcenia sackenii Kennicott, Proc. Acad. Nat 



Check-list N. Ainer. Batr. Kept., 1875, p. 40.- 



1888, p. 393. 

 Tropidonotus saurita Boulenger, part, Cat. Suakes Brit. Mus., I, 1893, p. 212. 

 Prymnomiodon chalceits Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., I860, p. 558. 



Tail, with rare exceptions, more than one-third the total length ; body 

 very slender; head quite distinct from body, elongate and with narrow 

 muzzle. Eye rather large; ocular 

 plates 1-3; sui)erior labials eight, 

 eye resting on fourth and fifth. 

 Temporals 1-2. Scales of body in 

 nineteen rows, very narrow, more 

 strongly keeled than in any other 

 species of the genus and notched 

 at the tips. The inferior row dif- 

 fers but little from the others, the 

 scales being a little deeper at the 

 base. 



Color, bright olive above, differ- 

 ing in depth; below light leek 

 green; generall}- with metallic 

 refiections. Three longitudinal 

 straw colored strii)es; the lateral 

 on the third and fourth rows; the 

 vertebral on the median and halves of adjacent rows of scales, all 

 narrowly dark brown bordered. Sometimes the color of the dorsal 

 stripe is like that of the rest of the back, the borders only remaining, 



Fig. 275. 



EUT^NI.V SACKENII KENNICOTT. 



= 1. 



Little Sarasota Bay, Florida. 



Cat. No. «<50'2, U.S.N.M. 



