CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 1103 



little the largest. Superior labials nine, fourth and fifth entering the 

 orbit, sixth largest, liigher than broad. Inferior labials twelve, the 

 third and fourth narrow, and much produced i)Osteriorly. Geneials two 

 pairs, the anterior longest. Gastrosteges, 230; one divided anal; uro- 

 steges, 70. 



Measurements. — Total length, 696 mm,; tail, 108 mm. 



Seven teeth upon the superior maxillary bone, of which one posterior 

 is elongate and grooved, three central, small and recurved, and three 

 anterior, very long, the first longest and least recurved. The central 

 three are not separated from those anterior and posterior to them by 

 spaces wider than those existing between themselves. Palatine teeth 

 six, the anterior three the longest, all longer than the pterygoids. The 

 three anterior mandibuhir teeth longer and more widely spaced than 

 the posterior, having an outward direction as in Hormonotus Hallowell. 



The ground color is a light gray. The muzzle is crossed by an indis- 

 tinct ashy band, which extends upon the anterior part of the post- 

 frontals. The posterior half of these plates is involved in a deep brown 

 band, which crosses the head between the eyes, and whose posterior 

 border is very concave, extending upon the superciliaries to the vertical 

 plane of the i)upil of the eye. This band is continued posteriorly upon 

 the inferior postocular and sixth upper labial. A pair of broad diverg- 

 ing bands begins one band on either side of the center of the vertical, 

 crosses the superciliary and occipital shields, and following the 

 expanded outline of the temporal and tympanic regions, contracts and 

 becomes longitudinal and parallel upon the neck. A brown spot upon 

 the posterior extremity of the vertical plates with a posterior elonga- 

 tion, comi^letes the resemblance of this figure to a lyre, or still more to 

 that musical (?) instrument known to children as the "Jew's-harp." 

 The ground color appears upon the vertex as an anchor-shaped figure, 

 and on the cheek as an oblique band. The back, as far as the anus, is 

 ornamented with twenty-one pairs of deej) brown spots, their gemina- 

 tion only apparent anteriorly by the punctulate character of the scales 

 in intervals between the pairs. These intervals are alwaj^s about three 

 scales wide, the lesser, two and a half anteriorly, one and a lialf pos- 

 teriorly. Dorsal spots seven scales wide; as the scales are broader 

 posteriorly, the spots are also. There is an irregular series of lateral 

 spots, one opposite each of the intervals, sojnetimes confluent with the 

 dorsal spots ; anteriorly they form a very narrow broken band. Another 

 series of spots involves the tips of pairs of the gastrosteges, which are 

 separated by two, three, four, or even five immaculate ones. Ten con- 

 fluent pairs of spots on the upper surface of the tail. Whole under 

 surface whitish. 



This species is most nearly allied to the T. lambda Cope. From this 

 one it will be always distinguished by the two ])arallel strii)es on the 

 neck, which extend to the sujierciliary plates. Sometimes (Cat. No. 

 8760) the stripes do not connect witli the superciliary stripes and Join 

 on the parietal plates. 



