SYNOPSES AND DESCRIPTIONS. S9 



Tantilla PLANICEPS. 



Coluber PLANicErs Bldiiiville, 1835, Nouv. Ann. da 3fust'i', p. 294, pi 27, f. 3 — 36. 

 Tantilla planiceps Cope, 1875, Clicck list, p. 35. 



Slender, elongate, cylindrical, head small, depressed, little larger than 

 the neck; snout short; tail short, pointed. Nostril lateral, in the middle 

 of the elongate nasal. Eyes medium. Mouth broad, deeply cleft. Head- 

 shields nine. No loreal. Orbitals 1 — 1. Ventrals 134. Subcaudals 56 

 pairs. Scales broad, lustrous, smooth. 



Uniform russet (light reddish-brown) above, whitish below, Avith a black 

 spot on the occiput and commencement of the neck. 



Dumeril & Bibron say the nasals are divided by a suture below the 

 nostril. Erp. Gen. VII, 858. (From descr.) California. 



Elapomorphus. 



(Wiegmann) Fitzinger, 1843, Syst. Rept., 25. 



Form resembling that of Flaps. Long, cylindrical; head rather indis- 

 tinct from the neck ; crown convex ; tail short, thick, conical. Eyes small, 

 puj)il round. Muzzle broad, rounded. Posterior upper maxillary teeth 

 generally somewhat larger and grooved. Nasal entire, rarely bifid. Lo- 

 real exceptionally present. Internasals two, or fused with prefrontals, or 

 each other. Prefrontals two, sometimes united. Preocular one. One 

 postocular, sometimes two. Scales smooth, in 15 rows. Anal entire or 

 divided. Subcaudals in two rows. 



Elapomorphus mexicanus. 



Gimther, 1862, Ann. <& Mag. Nat. Hist. 



Moderately slender; tail near one fourth of total. Internasals small, 

 short, broad. Prefrontals short, broad. Frontal six-sided, anterior a 

 little greater than a right-angle. Oculars 1 — ^2, anterior not in contact 

 with the frontal. Labials seven, third and fourth in orbit, seventh largest. 

 Anterior temporal large. Submentals two pairs, anterior rather larger. 

 Scales smooth, in 15 rows. Ventrals 158. Anal bifid. Subcaudals 52. 



Brownish olive, with three blackish longitudinal bands, viz : one, almost 

 linear, along the vertebral series of scales ; the two others along the sides, 

 each composed of two blackish, one line running along the middle of the 

 second outer series, the other along that of the third. Neck with a pair 



