30 riiOCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Jan., 



Eutaenia sirtalis leptocephala B. and G. 



E. leptocephala B. and G., I. c, 29 ; B. atrata and E. cooperi Kenn., 

 Pac. K. R. Survey, 296 (1860); E. leptocephala and E. infer nalis 

 vidua Cope, I. c, 658, 660, and Rep. Nat. Mus., 1058, 1055 ; T. lep- 

 tocephalus (part) and T. o. var. infernalis (part) Boul., I. c, 1,201, 

 208; Thamnophis leptocephalus Stej., I. c, 214; Van Den., I. c, 

 205. 



Size smaller and tail relatively a little longer than in E. s. 

 sirtalis; body moderately stout; head small and narrow; scales in 

 17-19 rows; preoculars 1 or 2 (3); postoculars 3 or 4: temporals 

 1-1 or 1-2; upper labials usually 7, but sometimes 6 or 8; olive, 

 greenish or blackish brown, generally with three light stripes; 

 these are variable and sometimes absent; the three rows of spots 

 are hardly to be seen in dark specimens; belly yellowish, greenish 

 or dark slate; head dark, with a parietal spot; labials yellower 

 olive, sometimes narrowly bordered; ventrals 139-152; sub- 

 caudals 52-77. Total length of one specimen 724 mm. (tail 

 1G4); of another 723 mm. (tail 138). Nine specimens from 

 Washington and British Columbia, • collected by Samuel N. 

 Rhoads, have 17 rows of scales; nearly all have 7 labials; one 

 has them 7-8, and one has 8; the preoculars ai-e 1, 2 or 3, with 2, 

 3 or 4 postoculare. In all the color is dark brown or black, with 

 the spots barely visible and the lateral stripe indistinct. Indi- 

 viduals with 19 rows and 7 labials so closely resemble some forms 

 of parietalis, and in fact some Eastern E. s. sirtalis, that I cannot 

 regard it as more than a subspecies. 



In E. infernalis vidua Cope has merely redescribed two of 

 Kennicott's original specimens of E. atrata, although he does not 

 mention the fact, "while referring to the resemblance. One of 

 Kennicott's specimens (No. G359 Ac. coll. ; original number 970), 

 marked vidua by Cope, better accords with the first description 

 than with the later one. It has 19 rows at a point about three 

 inches behind the head, where the number rarely reaches a maxi- 

 mum, but on the rest of the body it has 17 as stated by Kenni- 

 cott;'- upper labials 8; oculars 1-3; temporals 1-2; ventrals 155; 

 subcaudals (35; length 622 mm. (tail 138), or .22 of the length, 

 being considerably shorter than the proportion given by Cope. A 

 second specimen (No. G584 Ac. coll.), also from San Francisco, 

 has the dorsal stripe somewhat narrower ; spots obscure, but visible 



1 * Curiously enough, Cope in his last paper, p. 1059, refers to this irregu- 

 larity ia the number of rowa as being sometimes found in leptocephala. 



