54 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Jan., 



Pityophis catenifer bellona B. aud G. 



Churchillia bellona B. and G., Stans. Exp. Salt Lake, 350 (1852); P. 

 bellona (part) B. and G., I. f , 66, and Pac. K. R. Surv. Rept., PI. 

 XXIX, fig. 4(i ; P. sayi bellona Cope, I. c, 641, and Rep. Nat. Mus., 

 872 ; Coluber catenifer (part) and C. melanolcucus (part) Boul., 

 I. c., II, 67, 68 ; P. catenifer deserticola Slej., No. Am. Fauna, No. 

 7, Pt. II, 206. 



Tliis form appears to be found through the so-called Great 

 Basin, from Arizona northward to Utah and jS^evada. The rostral 

 is ahnost always higher than in P. c. catenifer, but less so than in 

 P. c. sayi; it commonly penetrates between the iuternasals about 

 one-third of their length. No. 3,978 Academy collection, from 

 Ogdeu, Utah, has the rostral barely touching the interuasals, as in 

 P. c. catenifer, aud has a maximum of six rows of smooth scales. 

 No. 3,782, from Owens' Valley, Cal., has the i-ostral penetrating 

 further, fully one-third, and has three rows of smooth scales. 

 No. 10,378, from Salt Lake, has the rostral as in No. 3,782. 

 This specimen, 1,040 mm. long, was taken in 1899, and has 

 sixty-four spots on the body, with seventeen on the tail; 31 rows 

 of scales, of which four are smooth; the colors are very distinct, 

 and on the posterior two-thirds of the body the light interspaces 

 are pink. Mr. Stejneger (/. c ) has applied the name c?eseHico/a 

 to this form, on the ground that bellona B. and G. is a synonym 

 of sayi. It is probably true that the type of bellona — now lost — 

 belonged to the plains form, but, as Prof. Cope points out, Baird's 

 plate in the Pacific R. R. Survey represents the one now under 

 consideration. In such a case, when there is a question as to abso- 

 lute invalidity, I see no good reason for supflantiug an old and 

 well-known name by a new one. The intensify of color, including 

 the pink tinge on the hinder half of the body, is hardly sufficient 

 for subspecific distinction, for even if it should be constant — and 

 some examples which have been four years in alcohol do not show 

 it — it is of no great importance, and Florida specimens of P. 

 vielanoleucHs would be quite as well entitled to separation on 

 account of their rufous tints. The size of this form seems to be 

 about as in P. c. catenifer. 



Hab. — California east of the Sierra Nevada; Utah and Nevada 

 south to Arizona and New Mexico. 



