CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 



1171 



consists of six, not four as in (J. atro.v. Siipeiciliaries more prominent. 

 Labial series mucli smaller. Upper anterior orbitals much smaller, as 

 also is the anterior nasal. Scales on the top of the head less carinated. 

 Scales between suiterciliaiies smaller and more numerous, five or six in 

 number instead of four. Two lateral rows of scales smooth, first, 

 second, and third jiradually increasing in size. Scales more linear than 

 in ('. air ox. 



(Jeneral color yellowish brown with a series of sulxjuadrate dark 

 blotches, with the corners rounded and the anterior and jjosterior sides 

 frequently concave, the exterior convex. These blotches are ten or 

 eleven scales wide and four or five long, liglit(M' in the center, and 

 margined for one-third of a scale with light yellowish. The intervals 



Fig. 3:!G. 



Ckotaluh conkluentus (■i)NKLUF;NTrs Say. 



= 1. 



"Western Texas. 



Collection of K. D. Coiw. 



along the back light brown, darker than the margins of the blotches. 

 Anteriorly the interval between the dark spots is but a single scale; 

 posteriorly it is more, becoming sometimes two scales, where also the 

 spots are more rhomboidal or lozenge-shaped ; nearer the tail, however, 

 they become transversely quadrate. The fundamental tlieory of colora- 

 tion might be likened to that of Crotahis <((lani<(ntci(s, namely, of forty 

 or fifty light lines decussating each other from opposite sides; but the 

 angles of decussation, instead of being acute, are obtnse, and truncated 

 or rounded off throughont. Along the third, fourth, and liftli lateral 

 rows of scales is a series of indistinct brown blotches covering a space 

 of about four scales and falling op])osite to the dorsal blotches; between 

 these blotches, and opposite to the intervals of the dorsal blotches, are 



