CROCODILIANH, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 



1027 



of scales on each side, and the median row witli the adjacent halva^s of 

 the adjacent rows. The brown si)ace between the stripes is marked by 

 two alternating rows of square blackish spots, and a single similar row 

 marks the brown ground below the lateral stripe. Belly greenish 

 white; each gastrostege with a black spot near the lateral extremity, 

 extending various distances from the base. The superior labial plates 

 are bordered posteriorly with black, sometimes narrowly, sometimes 

 broadly. The color of the sides is continued onto the head, without the 

 isolation of the anterior portion as a black spot on each side of the 

 nape. Sometimes the superior 

 labials are bordered with black 

 posterior to the postoculars, 

 sometimes not. 



In twenty-nine specimens I 

 have found three with eight su- 

 perior labials on one side, and 

 two with eight on both sides. 

 In eighteen specimens I have 

 found one with nineteen rows of 

 scales, and this one is the type 

 of Baird and Girard's original 

 description. 



This is a species of the central 

 ]>lains, not i)assing the Eocky 



Mountains to the west. It extends south as far as Dallas, Texas, and 

 north into Canada, and east to Lake Michigan and Ohio, exclusive. 



There are three color forms of this species which do not differ suffi- 

 ciently to deserve distinction as subsi)ecies. The species from northern 

 localities, including the type, are dark colored, the ground color obscur- 

 ing the spots, which can be, nevertheless, always discerned. Southern 

 individuals are much lighter colored, the ground being a light olive, 

 so that the spots l)oth above and below the lateral stripe are very dis- 

 tinct, and the lateral stripe is little contrasted. The third form, repre- 

 sented by two specimens from Indiana, is also brightly colored, and the 

 spots on the ends of the gastrosteges are prolonged posteriorly so as to 

 form a black stripe on each side of the abdomen ; but this is interrupted, 

 the stripe being only continuous in sections, including from two to five 

 scuta. 



The first of these color forms includes the type specimen, which has, 

 however, the stripes a little narrower than usual, and has the peculiarity 

 of having only nineteen rows of scales. To the average typical form 

 the name E. radix ticinhuiii Cones and Yarrow, has been given. The 

 second form is the JEutcvnia Itaydeiiii Kennicott. The other is the U. r. 

 melanotwnla Cope. 



Cat. N^o. 719, type; gastrosteges 153-1; urosteges ."il; length 568 

 mm.; tail 122 mm. 



Fig. 27il. 

 EUT.«MA HADIX BaIRD AND fJlUAIili 



Mouse River, Montana. 



Cat. No. 9538, U.S.N.M. 



