1901.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 27 



distinct; top of head dark ; parietal spot present ; labials yellowish 

 or greenish, with dark borders; ventrals 138-165; subcaudals 

 61-80. Length, 750 to 950 ram., of which the tail is from .20 

 to .25. 



Some of the specimens referred by Prof. Cope to E. s. graminea 

 have the stripes more or less distinctly marked; these I assign to 

 the present form. 



E. s. semifasciata Cope is based upon a few individuals in 

 which the spots are somewhat confluent anteriorly — a disposition 

 by no means uncommon in many of the species of this genus. 



Specimens in the Academy's collection labeled obsciDxi by Cope 

 plainly show the dorsal spots, although not prominently; similar 

 individuals may be found in almost any lot of E. s. sirtalis col- 

 lected in one locality; w^estern examples of obscura are probably 

 referable to E. s. pariefalis. The only thing which appears to me 

 out of the ordinary about the form, is that any one should have 

 thought of giving it a name. 



The basis of E. butlerl Cope was a specimen from Richmond, 

 Indiana, the special characters of Avhich were: the great width of 

 the lateral stripe, covering three rows of scales ; the black borders 

 of the stripes; the absence of defined spots and of markings on the 

 head and labials, and the presence of but one temporal in the 

 second row. To these distinctions Mr. Stejneger has added, from 

 a second specimen in the National Museum, that the eye is 

 strikingly small. I have not seen the type specimen, from Rich- 

 mond, but two others (No. 6523, Ac. coll.) from southeastern 

 Indiana, labeled by Cope E. butlerl, present intermediate charac- 

 ters. In these examples, the lateral stripe nowhere " covers " the 

 second, third and fourth rows, being everywhere restricted to the 

 lower half of the fourth, and anteriorly, where it most extends on 

 the fourth, it barely covers the upper margin of the second, while 

 on the hinder half of the body it is almost wholly on the second 

 and third. The sijots are not entirely absent, though obscure 

 against the dark bod}- color, and in one of the specimens they 

 form narrow broken borders to the stripes, as in many of Cope's 

 obscura; the posterior labials have narrow dark borders, and there 

 is an indistinct parietal spot. Both have two temporals in the 

 second row; in one the lower is narrow and in contact with the 

 anterior one only by its point; in the other, the lower is much the 



