1901.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 29 



E. s. tetvaUenia Cope was founded upon sj ecimeiis which had 

 beeu many years in alcohol. One in the Academy's collection 

 (No. 6085) from Puget Sound, formerly known as E. conclnna, 

 seems to have had the red lateral spaces formed into a longitudinal 

 stripe, extinguishing the upper portion of the lower row of spots. 

 A small snake in the same jar, of the same date and locality, is an 

 ordinary parietalis. 



Considering the amount of variability in the joining of the spots 

 in 2)anetaMs, and also the uncertain way in which the red pigment 

 dissolves in alcohol, I am not disposed to attach much importance 

 to slight differences in these very old specimens. 



E. dorsalis B. and G. has the upper black dorsal stripe some- 

 what narrower than is usual in those examples of parietalis in 

 which the spots fuse into a stripe. 



E. onlinoides B. and G. is said to have the sides chestnut in 

 life, instead of bright red, but this difference is trivial and old 

 alcoholic specimens are distinguishable only when they have 21 

 rows of scales and 8 labials; but as ordinoides and parietalis vary 

 into each other in scutellation, I see no good reason for separating 

 them, or for assigning the former to E. elegans, as is done by Cope. 



Whatever may or may not have been injernalis Blainville, I 

 have never seen a living specimen which could be referred with 

 certainty to injernalis B. and G. or Cope, and I am persuaded 

 that those so called belong in part to the present form and in part 

 to E. elegans. 



The dimensions of parietalis are about as in E. s. sirtalis. 



Hab. — From central California norih to \Yashington and 

 Oregon, and through the plains from Montana to Texas. 



Eutaenia sirtalis pickeringi B. and G. 



£J. Phckaringii B. and G., I. c, 27 ; E. s. jnckeringii and E. s. trilineata 

 Cope, I. c, 065, and Rep Nat. Mus., 1082, 1083 ; T. o. var. infernalis 

 (part) Boul., I.e., I, 207; Thamnophis parietalis pickeringi Van 

 Den., I. c, 204. 



Color very dark, blackish brown or black, with three narrow 

 light stripes ; belly dark greenish or slate color; throal lighter. 

 E. s. trilineata Cope is simply this form with the stripes inconsid- 

 erably wider. 



Hab. — Washington, Oregon and western Montana. 



