604 



EEPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



very large infralabials followed by a very small one under the center 

 of the eye; two small square chin-shields behind mental followed b}^ 

 flat smaller scales, becoming - gradually smaller, almost granular on the 

 middle of the throat, then gradually increasing backward on neck and 

 chest, being imbricate and keeled on lower neck and chest; scales on 

 abdomen still larger, but smaller than those on the back; limbs with 

 smaller keeled imbricate scales; scales on tail above uniform, keeled, 

 imbricate, below smooth, larger under the middle line, some widened 

 so as to form rather irregular transverse plates. 



Dimensions. 



mm. 



Total length 58 



Tip of snout to vent 30 



Vent to tip of tail 28 



Greatest width of head 5 



Tip of snout to ear 7 



Fore legs from axilla 7 



Hind legs from groin 9 



Coloration of living specimens. — Adult; U.S.N.M., No. 27007; 

 L. Stejneger, No. 9045; Luquillo, March 4, 1900. General color 

 tawny-olive, with indistinct marblings of darker raw 

 umber; across the shoulders a wide, black band, 

 edged anteriorly and posteriorly with whitish, and 

 inclosing two pure white spots; underneath, pale 

 isabella color; chin and throat, pure raw sienna; 

 underside of tail suffused with russet; iris, brassy, 

 overlaid with blackish, leaving a very narrow bright 

 ring bordering the pupil. 



Another specimen (No. 27008, L. S., No. 9046) 

 caught with the one just described was duller, the 

 general ground color being more dull isabella and 

 the dark markings darker Van Dyke brown; the 

 edges of the shoulder band like the ground color, 

 but the two spots were pure white. 



A number of } r oung specimens collected at the 

 same time were sooty black with few traces of darker 

 markings, but all showed plainly the black shoulder 

 band with the two white spots, and all had the 

 extreme tip of the tail pure white. 



All the above specimens which were brought us by the children in 

 Luquillo, and which were said to have been caught inside the huts 

 and houses of the natives differed notably in coloration from the 

 specimens which we ourselves collected afterwards, both in Vieques 

 and near Ponce, under stones far from human habitations. 



Three of the specimens on the beach at Vieques (Nos. 27142-4; L. S., 



Fig. 51. — Sph^kodao 

 tylus grandisqua- 

 MIS. 2| X natural 

 size. Color pattern 

 of head and shoul- 

 d e r . No. 27007, 

 r.S.N.M. 



