446 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



smooth, second and third with absolute cariiiatiou. Tail and posterior 

 l)ortion of body with 1(5 or 17 half rings. A succession of brown dorsal 

 hexagons or octagons, separated throughout by a narrow lighter line. 

 Light stripe from superciliary crosses the angle of the mouth on the 

 third and fourth row above labial. 



Head very broad anteriorly, outline little tapering. Head above 

 covered with many small tuberculiform scales, showing a substelliform 

 radiation. Interval between superciliary plates filled with small scales, 

 nearly uniform in size; row bordering the superciliaries very small. 

 Scales in front of the superciliaries variable; in one specimen there are 

 two rows of four each, of considerable size; in another they are larger 

 than the rest, but irregular. Scales on the cheeks large, flat, smooth. 



Ground color, light brown above. Along the back a series of sub- 

 hexagonal or octagonal blotches, formed by a skeleton of dull yellowish, 

 constituting a dorsal chain. The space thus inclosed ot the ground 

 color is margined faintly with dark brown; the width of the interval 

 between the suc(;essive blotches is from one-half to li scales. These 

 spots are frequently confluent, two and three running together. Where 

 most distinct the spots are 1 scales long and 11 wide. On each side of 

 this dorsal series is a second, separated by a single row of scales, the 

 blotches extending from the abdominal scutelhe to the fifth or sixth 

 row. These are smaller than the dorsal, and subcircular. Opposite the 

 transverse light bands, and in the open space between four contiguous 

 blotches on the sides, smaller blotches are indistinctly visible. Poste- 

 riorly, the spots on the back and sides are confluent and darker; in one 

 s[)ecimen forming 17 half rings, encircling the back, leaving about 21 

 dorsal blotches. Abdomen greenish yellow, more or less clouded with 

 brown at the bases of the scales. Head dai'k brown ; a light line from 

 posterior portion of the superciliaries along the fourth row of suprala- 

 bial scales back to the angle of the jaws, on the occiput, where it 

 expands into the color of the under part. Upper labials of the same 

 light color behind, rapidly widening anteriorly so as to include whole 

 front and side of the face, leaving only the top of the head dark. The 

 space about the facial i)it darker. (See fig. 00). 



The theory of coloration is that of decussating lines, which, when 

 they intersect, unite so as to have the angles of intersection truncated. 



The species has a general resemblance to C. atrox in the arrange- 

 ment of the blotches, but is darket, and has about 17 dark half rings 

 posteriorly instead of 4 or 5. In C. atrox the head is narrower and 

 more triangular, the space between the superciliaries narrow and occu- 

 pied by angulated larger scales, instead of small tuberculous ones. In 

 (J. atrox the row bordering the superciliaries is much larger th^in the 

 rest, and the scales on the top of the head generally more angulated. 

 In C. lucifer the line on the side of the head (fig. GO), instead of going 

 directly from the posterior end of the superciliary to the commissures, 

 passes back nearly parallel to the mouth, crossing along the fourth row 



