1124 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



times iu the total in Cat. No. 82(55). Dorsal scales small. Plates of the 

 head generally larger than in E. euryxantlius- rostral broad and not as 

 high as iu the same. Internasals rather small, and slightly elongated 

 laterally ; prefrontals large, pentagonal, as broad as long. Snperciliaries 

 quadrangular, elongated, narrow. Frontal pentagonal, rather large, 

 but narrow, the pointed posterior extremity inserted between the occip- 

 itals, as in E.fuh'ius. 



The ground color of the body in the alcoholic specimen is reddish 

 brown, i)robably brighter red in life, with twelve to fourteen very nar- 

 row, black rings from head to anus. At the edges of the black rings 

 the reddish color becomes indistinctly lighter for half a scale, but there 

 is no ATell-detined light ring bordering the black as in the other species. 

 On the tail are five to seven broad black bands separated by narrow 

 light rings. The anterior part of the head back to the middle of the 

 occipitals and the upper jaw to the fourth labial is black, but this 

 color does not extend on the lower jaw at all, and the lower edge of the 

 rostral and upper labials is light. On the posterior part of the head is 



Fig. 323. 



Elaps distans Kennicott. 



X 1.5. 



Cat. No. 8265, U.S.N. M. 



the usual light rings, but situated farther back than in E.fuhnns^ its 

 anterior border passing across the middle of the occipitals a little 

 behind the vertical, and thence down and forward to the fourth labial, 

 expanding below upon the whole of the lower jaw. On the neck, 

 behind this light ring, is a black one, about five or six scales iu width, 

 which does not run entirely around the body, being interrupted for a 

 short distance on the abdomen. Behind this the black annulationsare 

 perfect, each four or five scales in width, and separated by intervals of 

 fifteen to twenty scales of the ground color. The black aunulations 

 are broader on the vertebral region than laterally and beneath, where 

 they coviBr three or four dorsal scales and the same number of abdomi- 

 nal scutelhe. The black rings on the tail are about eight scales wide, 

 and separated by light intervals of only two or three scales. 



The narrow black rings, separated by very wide intervals, will at 

 once distinguish this species from any of the others here described. 

 There are also no blotches or dots of black on the red intervals, and if 

 the colors of the specimen described have not been much altered by 

 soaking, the absence of distinct light rings of a third color between 



