CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 



1181 



CROTALUS TIGRIS Kennicott. 



CrotaliiH tif/rin Kennicott, U. S. aiul Mex. Bound. Surv., II, 1859, p. 14. — Copk, in 

 Yarrow, U. S. Geog. Survey W. 100th Merid., V, 1875, p. 534.— Copk, Check- 

 list N. Amer. Batr. Rept., 1875, p. 33. — Ste.jnegeu, Report U. S. Nat. Mus. 

 for 1893, 1895, p. 449, pi. xiv. 



Figures, U. S. and Mex. Bound. Surv., II, pi. iv. 



Size not large. Head oval, tlie muzzle short and obtuse with sliort 

 aud indistinct cauthus rostralis. Rostral plate trinni^iilar, not higher 

 than wide, in contact with prenasal. Postnasal and preorbitals short, 

 not in contact; one or two loreals. Two or three rows of scales below 

 orbit. Top of muzzle and interorbital si)ace with small flat smooth 

 scales of about equal size, the posterior can thai scale only being larger. 

 Supraorbital scuta more or less divided by a transverse suture or groove, 



Fig. 341. 



CROTALUS TIGRIS KENNICOTT. 



= 1. 



Sierra Verde, New Mexico. 



Cat. No. 471,U.S.N.M. 



a branch from which cuts off more or less completely a part of the 

 margin. Five or six rows between supraorbitals. Scales on cheek 

 and back of head keeled. Body scales not narrowed, all keeled, except 

 the inferior three rows on each side. 



The ground color of the alcoholic specimens is a light yellowish gray 

 above and a dirty white below. The median dorsal line is crossed by 

 numerous trunsverse hexagons of a brown color, which is punctulated 

 with a darker brown. The interspaces of two scales on the middle line 

 are pigmented probably yellow in life. On the inferior four or five rows 

 of scales opi)osite the lateral angles of the hexagons is a series of ver- 

 tical brown bars or spots. Near the anterior fourth of the length these 

 fuse with the hexagons, forming cross-biinds, which continue to the end 

 of the tail. They are wide at the middle ami narrow at the sides of the 

 body, aud are separated on the median line above by the pigmented 



