1194 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



lations form a series of about forty-two dorsal spots. These are trans- 

 verse, with produced lateral angles, extending across twelve rows of 

 scales from angle to augle, separated from the adjacent ones by a bright 

 band of ground color one and a half scales wide. On the posterior 

 fourth of the total length they form brown cross bands. Five upon the 

 tail are black on very light ground, as in (J. a. atrox. Anteriorly there 

 is an ill-delined series of spots, which are opposite those of the dorsal 

 line. A yellow band extends from the nasal plates anterior to the eye, 

 involving from the ninth to the last superior labial. Superior to this 

 is a brown band extending from the eye and ceasing on a line with the 

 augle of the mouth. Some indistinct brown marks on the top of the 

 head are arranged as follows: One on the inner border of each super- 

 ciliary; three [losterior to these, the median short and broad; four 

 further posterior, the median pair longer, diverging, reaching the neck. 



Fig. 345. 



CROTALUS MITCHELL!! COPE. 

 = 1. 



La Paz, Lower California. 



Cat. No. 1'2626, U.S.N.M. 



The typical specimen from which this si^ecies was described was 

 taken at Cape St. Lucas. A specimen from Arizona which subse- 

 quently came to hand differed so widely in squamation and color that 

 I referred it to a distinct species under the name of C. pijrrhus. Thus, 

 while the Cape St. Lucas specimen had two loreals, the Arizona ani- 

 mal had four, and while the Cape St. Lucas snake was pale gray, with 

 scarcely discernible dorsal spots, the Arizonian was red, with dark-red 

 quadrate dorsal spots. Dr. Stejneger subsequently observed that speci- 

 mens from California, in about the latitude of the Arizonian locality, 

 had the color of the Cape St. Lucas specimen, and that the number of 

 loreals was not constant. Still later Mr. Van Denburgh, of the Cali- 

 fornia Academy of Sciences, has shown that the number of loreal 



